


Shadow the Hedgehog -- Light of Ichor

by Whozawhatcha



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe, Angel Island, Drama, Gen, History, M/M, Mystic Ruins, Other, Space Colony ARK, and before any other games were made screw Shadow's history in his own game no aliens here, ark, expanding angel island, history of angel island, if you want a story dwelling on angel island and the history of knuckles' people this is it, knuckles being actually useful to the story, knuckles the echidna - Freeform, lots of Angel Island and the Mystic Ruins, mild swearing?, nothing outrageous, post SA2, the violence isn't that graphic yet i think, tikal the echidna - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-31
Updated: 2016-02-22
Packaged: 2018-05-17 06:22:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 47,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5857480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whozawhatcha/pseuds/Whozawhatcha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Surprise! Maria is alive, and has been living her life fully for the past 50 years while he was stuck in suspended animation. Can Shadow reconnect with his old friend? And why is he pulled to Angel Island? And in turn, its magnetic guardian? But a haunting darkness is terrorizing Maria.... Will the power of the Chaos Emeralds be enough, or will our anti-hero have to look to greater means?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Clinging to the Past

**Author's Note:**

> My first author's note is usually lengthy, so strap in! This is my first Sonic the Hedgehog fic (or more accurately, Shadow the Hedgehog fic) so I hope you guys will enjoy it! This one is set post Sonic Adventure 2 and pre any other sort of game. I wanted to do a fic where Maria was alive, yes, but not turned into a Mobian or suspended animation to keep her young, I wanted something fresh. So the premise is that she survived the gunshot and lived her life fully.
> 
> I've got a lot planned for this story, and I plan to try and update every two weeks. (Suspect to fluctuations since I'm a university student.) Oh, and also, because I think their dynamic is going to be super interesting, there MAY be a "crack" ship of sorts with Knuckles and Shadow. I haven't quite decided yet.
> 
> Anyways, I'm a little late on getting myself into the Sonic fandom, so I hope you all enjoy the first chapter! Leave a review and tell me what you think! :3

### 

“Someone told me love would all save us

But how can that be? Look what love gave us

A world full of killing and blood spilling

That world never came”

Hero __ Nickelback

He was indebted to the doctor again. He didn’t like it, but he would respect it.

Jets screamed a distant roar behind him. Ignoring them, Shadow doubled his speed and flew across the highway dodging in between cars. His heart raced with the thrill of his speed and the adrenaline of the bullets that pelted along behind him when G.U.N. had a clear shot.

He owed his life to the doctor. Without him, he may not have regenerated fast enough to live. After falling through the Earth’s atmosphere, it should have been enough to kill anyone. However, Shadow was immortal and free of such constraints. His body had already been regenerating with the trace Chaos energies in his blood. When the doctor found his body, he placed him in a pod that accelerated his healing with the power of a Chaos Emerald. He was back on his feet within months, but not without a great deal of regenerative pain.

At least paying back the doctor was straightforward. He wanted Chaos Emeralds. And whatever other sort of errand he could push on Shadow. The last time he had stolen a Chaos Emerald, Sonic had been there as a thorn in his side. With G.U.N.’s help, Sonic had almost succeeded in stopping him.

This time?

A pleased smirk touched his features as he drew along the outskirts of the city: still no sign of that blue nuisance. He was almost in range to teleport directly to Eggman’s hideout at this point. He drew out the chase a little more in the hopes of seeing him, if just to have a little fun and flex his muscles, but if Sonic was on his way, he was certainly taking his time.

More minutes drew on. He half expected the blue pincushion to pop up again, demanding to know how he survived and what he was doing, but the hero refused to make an entrance. Annoyed that he was apparently choosing to ignore him this time, Shadow vaulted over a roadblock unscathed, darted past the next block bustling with police, and teleported with Chaos Control.

He appeared in a dim room lit with mostly computer screens. Eggman swiveled around from his computer with an annoyed grunt. “You certainly took your time,” he griped. “Where is it?”

Shadow lifted the blue Chaos Emerald and threw it at him. He turned to leave, but Eggman quickly snapped, “And where do you think you’re going? We’re not finished here.”

The doctor’s tone stroked a flame of anger. Shadow clenched his hands and glared over his shoulder at the obese man. “I appreciate you saving me, Doctor,” he said quietly and evenly. “But I don’t appreciate you trying to keep me enslaved to you.”

“I am hardly—”

“Don’t play coy with me, Doctor!” he retorted, whirling. His crimson eyes flashed in the shadows. “You know as well as I do that you plan to keep me leashed with debt as long as you can.” Eggman leaned back comfortably in his chair, crossing his legs idly in the dim lair. Shadow gritted his teeth. “I have indulged you. I have done your dirty work. I have brought you two more Chaos Emeralds. But I will not stay your lap dog. My debt is paid, and I am leaving.”

Shadow turned to go again, his skates clapping the floor a little too loudly in the silence. He heard Eggman chuckle.

“Fine,” he said, “let’s say your life debt to me is paid with a few errands.” Shadow bristled as he stalked off. He had catered to the mad doctor for months now. “Allow me to propose an alternative offer.” He didn’t stop. “What if I told you I had more information regarding your rather convoluted past?”

Shadow halted in the doorway.

He knew his bouts of amnesia were apparent. He knew much of his past was still missing, but he thought he was getting better. He was remembering more. Mostly, it was memories of Maria or Gerald. Some were awful. Remembering the experiments. Remembering the brutal training G.U.N. forced on him. But most of the memories were pleasant. Nights watching Earth movies, learning to skate on his anti-gravity shoes, home school lessons, tickle attacks—funny how those were usually Maria attacking him, tickling the tuft of white fur on his chest.

It was all so bitter. If anything, the good memories haunted him and heightened his depression. Sometimes, Shadow wondered if Eggman should have just let him die and go to rest in the past with his family. He had no purpose here now other than to play errand boy for Eggman, always taking orders.

But . . . to KNOW . . .

Against his will, Shadow turned around at the temptation that Eggman presented. The doctor smugly pulled on his moustache.

“Catch your attention, did I?”

Shadow forcibly controlled the curl of his lip. “What do you know about my past?”

“Well, my dear boy,” he said, lacing his fingers over his belly, “that’s for me to know and you to find out!” Giving him a livid glare, Shadow clenched his hands as Eggman chuckled. “Oh, but you’ve done so well so far. I guess I can give you a little taste of what I know.”

Crimson eyes flashed. His heart palpitated uneasily in his chest. Eggman smiled, and it wasn’t pleasant.

“I know who shot Maria.”

Ice chilled his veins. His jaw ground and he sucked in a sharp breath against the blinding rage that filled him. His fists tightened until they shook. Her killer. The fury blazing through his body was almost enough to scare him—it was the same kind of uncontrollable anger that had made him want to destroy the Earth. But this time, it could be different. It would be the very one responsible for spilling innocent blood. Maria could understand that, couldn’t she?

His throat tightened and his jaw practically shook as he rasped, “Who is it?” He wanted to kill him. Slowly. Make him feel the sort of anguish he had felt when Maria was taken from him, and watch him bleed out the same way Maria’s life had left her.

However, Eggman just chuckled and shook his head, standing. He turned the blue Chaos Emerald in his hand idly. “Perhaps I’ll start giving you more information when you prove yourself to me.” Shadow’s quills stiffened, ready to attack. How much pain would it take to get the doctor to spill . . . ? “Oh trust me,” he said with a grin towards Shadow, “I’ll keep dangling the bait for you. And I’ll keep giving you answers. Quite frankly, my boy, I want you to have these answers. You deserve the chance to put your history to rest, but as a man of business, I can’t offer these answers without a price.”

Shadow debated for one hot minute more whether or not to strangle the answers out of the mad doctor before he relented. He’d placate the doctor a little more, because like it or not, he had answers. Answers Shadow needed. Answers he WANTED. He could forgive humanity, but the man responsible for her death?

He would feel vengeance.

Shadow unlocked his jaw and relaxed his body into a more submissive stance. “What do you want?” he asked for the nth time.

Eggman cheered up then. “Thank you, Shadow. Now that wretched Sonic has found my base. He and that fox boy are planning their attack right now. I’m moving my plans to a different location in the Scrap Brain Zone, so I’ll need you to keep them busy for me. Understand?”

He dipped his head down obediently. “I understand. It will be done.”

*

Shadow watched passively above at the scene unfolding below.

Eggman’s robots hardly slowed the blue hero down. Tails was more easily shot down out of his plane, but watching Sonic was like watching wheat being sown from a field. Blue spines tore through metal robots with ease as he destroyed the meager distraction Eggman had for him. Shadow glowered at him. He could see that unflappable grin from even where he stood. Sonic was having FUN.

His fingers tightened on his arms. He couldn’t wait to wipe that smug smirk off his face. At least he could say he didn’t dislike his work.

Glancing at the time, Shadow calculated the minutes Eggman would need to get away and how long he needed to stall Sonic. After a minute more, Sonic had finished with the final trump robot, its pincers severed from its body. With a curl of his lip, Shadow leapt down into the gorge with him, blocking the way to the entrance to the doctor’s fortress.

Sonic skidded to a halt. Green eyes popped. “Shadow! What are you doing?”

He scowled, crossing his arms. “Is that the only question you can ask me?”

Tails appeared, descending slowing with a gust from his double tails. “Shadow, what’s wrong with you? We thought you were a good guy!”

“Yeah,” Sonic said with a frown, “what happened to the guy who helped save the world? Why are you working for Eggman again?”

His spines prickled with irritation as the sun began to fall low in the sky. His fists snapped to his side. “Just because I saved the world,” he snarled with contempt, “doesn’t mean I’m a part of your merry band of heroes!” How dare they question what he was doing? How dare they think they knew how he should live his life? He knew what he was doing. His heart throbbed. He knew exactly what he was doing.

Sonic slouched a little, readying himself for the attack. “Come on, Shadow. Get out of the way. Eggman’s getting away.”

Shadow slouched too, his body loosening like a snake for the battle about to erupt. His lip curled up. “Make me.”

Still, Sonic hesitated. He looked up quickly to the base that Eggman was evacuating before he shook his head at Shadow. “Come on, Shadow, you’re better than this,” he tried again to sway him. “Whatever Egg-head’s got on you, it’s not worth it. Think about Maria! What would she say—?”

Shadow moved before he even finished processing Sonic’s words. With a violent, fast spin dash, he slammed into Sonic directly, making the loose-lipped hedgehog fly back. Hot rage poured into Shadow’s system. He didn’t deserve to even speak her name! Snarling in fury, Shadow closed in on the attack. Sonic found his feet quickly and met him head on, spines clashing together as they began a high speed battle.

The second hard hit went to Sonic. He collided headfirst into Shadow’s chest, making all the air erupt from his lungs and his back hit the brittle ground. Flipping back up, Shadow avoided a spin dash and lunged, trading blows with fists. He outmatched the blue hedgehog in close combat. Sonic darted past in retreat and homed in on him, spines ripping the air. Darting beneath him, Shadow caught Tails running towards the base. He growled. Skating close, he slammed into the fox hard enough that Tails was shaken, not getting up for a minute.

Pain ripped along his back and the force of Sonic’s attack made him skid across the ground. Intercepting him and curling up, Shadow combated his attacks with his own. After a moment, they parted to catch their breath, Sonic’s legs splayed in front of Tails protectively.

“Seriously, Shadow, what’s going on? Why are you playing fetch for Eggman of all people!”

Chaos energies hummed restlessly in Shadow’s veins, like a caged animal vying to be let out. He wished the doctor had let him keep a Chaos Emerald if he was going to have to fight Sonic and play catch-up at the new base both. “That’s none of your business, faker,” he snarled, fingers clenching for his next attack.

“It is my business when you’re handing over Chaos Emeralds to him!” Sonic shouted right back. Jet engines kicked up at the end of his sentence, and Sonic looked up just in time to see Eggman’s ship taking off.

Shadow took the opening when he saw it. Skating forward in the flash of an eye, it was only Sonic’s impossibly acute reflexes that saved his nose from being broken. Instead, Shadow’s knuckles impacted Sonic’s cheekbone firmly and sent the blue blur stumbling backwards. He advanced again only for him to avoid his attack and go darting up the side of the base.

Swearing lowly as Sonic pursued, Shadow intercepted him, spin dashing towards him and forcing him to defend. Whirling around in streaks of red and blue, the high speed battle ruined another three unattended robots, two doors, and a generator. A trickle of blood oozed down over Shadow’s eye from Sonic’s spines, but Eggman’s ship was nearly too high for even Sonic to propel himself up to. A smirk pulled Shadow’s lips when the doctor’s cloaking device activated, concealing the carrier, and the sound of the engines began to dim.

Mission accomplished.

Sonic released a sound of frustration, and he turned towards Shadow angrily. “Just what was that? Do you have any idea the kind of damage Eggman can do with three Chaos Emeralds!”

“I don’t care what the doctor does,” Shadow replied venomously. And he didn’t. All he cared about was the information he held.

“Yeah? And what if Eggman plans to destroy the planet? Will Mar—Will you suddenly change your mind like you did last time?”

Sonic just caught himself from mentioning Maria’s name again, and it was a smart move. Shadow hated that so many now had such an intimate part of his past that he violently chose not to share with anyone. That was too close. Too painful.

Instead, Shadow released a scathing scoff. “Like destroying the planet is the doctor’s style. We all know he prefers world domination. The preservation of this mud ball is hardly part of my affairs.”

“Yeah?” Sonic said hotly. “Then what is?”

“That’s none of your business.”

Sonic released a rare growl of frustration as the sun dipped below the horizon. “And just when I was willing to give you some slack, you manage to prove me wrong,” he said, and Shadow could hear a true tone of offense in his voice. His jaw twitched. It was hardly his concern. Besides, he hadn’t exactly gotten a warm welcome from anyone yet for cheating death.

When there was no answer forthcoming from the dark hedgehog, Sonic huffed at his silence. “C’mon, Shadow,” he tried again. He jerked his thumb in the general direction that Eggman had disappeared. “You’re back, and you’ve got the chance to do things right this time! There’s no need to go right back to Eggman of all people!”

“I have to go back to the Doctor,” Shadow barked, amazed at the blue hedgehog’s persistence. “It’s the only way I’ll get any answers!”

“Answers about what?”

He already knew about Maria, and Shadow wasn’t about to let him pry into his personal life anymore than he already had. He clenched his jaw, spitting out once more, “None of your business.”

“Aw, don’t be like that,” Sonic said, seeming to zero in on the chance to know something more about Shadow. Shadow felt his fur prickle, like he was behind the glass in a zoo. “We can help you, Shads! Gimme a chance, all right? You don’t have to do it alone.”

“This is my issue, not yours!” Shadow shot back defensively. “I don’t need your help, and I don’t want your help! Just stay out of my life!” Chaos, did the idiot hedgehog think every stray being was in need of a hero? He didn’t need saving!

Sonic huffed once more, seeming to give it up. “Fine. Then at least tell me where Eggman’s headed.”

Shadow released a disbelieving laugh, feeling more comfortable now that the conversation had slipped back into territory he knew. He strolled along to the edge of the gorge, Sonic watching his movements like a hawk. “You think I’d just tell you? You’ll just have to wait and see what the doctor is plotting.”

Before he reached the edge to leave, Sonic was in front of him, body lunged forward for the attack. “Give it up, Shadow. You’re not going anywhere until we’ve got some answers out of you.”

He didn’t even blink and pushed past him. “The doctor is hardly a threat. You’ll stop him as you always do, and the doctor will throw a tantrum, like he always does.” Shadow couldn’t help but feel a little smug that Sonic didn’t attack him again. “I have my own mission, and you’ll do to stay out of my way.”

The words tasted a bit stale in his mouth. Like he and Sonic had danced this tango one too many times already, and it wasn’t about to end soon. Instead, as he hopped down into the gorge, he took off at supersonic speeds to catch the doctor at his new base. On the other side of the continent.

What did that blue hedgehog WANT from him? Did he want him to suddenly say that everything was right with the world and be a glowing ray of sunshine? As he thought about it, Shadow nearly stopped at a sudden epiphany. They could help him; he didn’t have to do it alone—had Sonic been trying, in a roundabout way, to become FRIENDS with him? Shadow felt his mind cave it on itself at the oddity of it. Had Sonic seriously been willing to throw away the fact that they had been enemies ever since Shadow’s awakening? That was . . . ridiculous. Impossible. Why would Sonic want to be friends with Shadow?

And before Shadow could stop his mind that night, his musings immediately turned the past and only other friend he’d had. He couldn’t seem to get his mind out of the past. He was always returning to that horrific moment when Maria was shot; or worse, he looked back to the scarce flashes of happiness he could remember. It was nearly worse than the agony. At least the pain he could combat with anger and violence and sarcasm. The grief?

Chaos. He didn’t want to touch the grief.

Unable to process through his emotions correctly, Shadow buried them under mounds of detachment. Instead, as the grounds of the continent flew by under his shoes, his red eyes gleamed through the darkness as he sped along. The grounds whipped beneath him, like a race track ate up all too quickly. Roads and plains and dirt kicked up behind him as the moon drew bright in the sky, reflecting the light of the sun into the shadows.

He allowed his mind to dwell on the elusive answers Eggman was harboring. First and foremost, Maria’s killer. But what else? Perhaps the man who had sanctioned the attack in the first place? Or perhaps the man that turned Shadow into a killing machine instead of a healing agent. Shadow’s gloved hands clenched into fists. Muffled anger ate at his heart, faintly remembering glimpses of a haggard past and never being fully able to grasp it, like gossamer in the wind.

Instead, as he drew into Green Hill Zone, no pesky blue hedgehogs following behind him, Shadow slowed, sensing a presence. Ignoring the pretty sights of the waterfalls and rolling plains of wildflowers—but a part of him whispered, _Maria would like this place _—Shadow’s ears perked attentively. His spines bristled for an attack, and he whirled just in time to see someone step from the bushes.__

__Hiseyes widened. “Shadow? Wh—You’re alive!”_ _

__When there was no attack forthcoming, only shock, Shadow released his aggressive stance to look at the guardian. Knuckles looked the same, though he hadn’t really interacted with him the last time they were together. He carried a little pouch on a stick, as if he’d been traveling. A sarcastic retort jumped from his lips._ _

__“I’m reasonably aware.”_ _

__Knuckle’s nose turned up slightly. “And I see you’re none worse for the wear,” he said wryly, his tone border lining somewhere between reluctant amusement and annoyance. He then gave a shrug, saying, “Well. Good to see you alive.”_ _

__Confused surprise laced through Shadow. Apparently, it must have shown on his face, because Knuckles’ face pinched and he asked, “What?”_ _

__Blinking, Shadow looked away from him, processing the new emotions—was he actually grateful for once? “You’re the first person to seem pleased that I’m alive.” He was surprised it was the guardian. He had expected . . . Sonic to be glad he was alive, but the blue speedster hadn’t really dwelled on that much, only the Chaos Emeralds he was stealing._ _

__There was a pregnant, awkward pause. Knuckles finally cleared his throat a little, finding a suitable response to that with, “Well, it’s always good when someone’s found alive instead of dead.” He frowned. “How DID you survive?”_ _

__His quills twitched. “The doctor found me. He saved me.”_ _

__Knuckles released a grumble that sounded dangerous, but Shadow’s ears perked when he realized his anger wasn’t directed at Shadow. “Hmph. And now you’re indebted to him again, aren’t you?”_ _

__Knucklehead. That’s what Sonic called him. Shadow turned his full attention on him, finding that the echidna seemed plenty bright enough to him. Sonic still hadn’t seemed to grasp the concept of his debt. “Yes. I owe the mad doctor whether I like it or not. Don’t try to fight me on this.”_ _

__The red echidna barely batted an eye in the dark. “I won’t unless he’s keeping pieces of the Master Emerald.” He lifted the stick with the pouch on it to punctuate his statement. “If you see any, give them to me.”_ _

__Shadow barely held back a scoff. “Your rock shattered again?” he said with just a drip of contempt. He wasn’t very proficient at this “guardian” thing. Quickly his intelligence came back into question._ _

__He heard the echidna’s teeth grind from where he stood. “Clearly,” he said with a growl of annoyance. “Eggman shattered it this time. You know anything about that?”_ _

__He shook his head. “I don’t know what the doctor wants with your rock.”_ _

__Knuckles seemed to consider his flat, uninterested answer before he grunted. “Fine. I believe you. Better watch out for Chaos. He escaped the Master Emerald again."_ _

__Shadow frowned, turning more towards him. "Chaos?"_ _

__Knuckles gave a shrug, as if this were common knowledge. "The ancient immortal water-like deification of Chaos. He can do some serious damage with Chaos Emeralds, so don't let him get his hands on one."_ _

__A Chaos . . . god. Shadow's interest piqued, but he didn't show it. Instead, he merely turned his face away to suggest he was finished with the conversation. Knuckles grunted, half muttering to himself, "But if I ever meet up with that Eggman again, I’m going to give him a piece of my fists.”_ _

__Shadow was tempted to tell him he was headed in the wrong direction, but found he didn’t really care. He could find the broken pieces himself. “Feel free,” Shadow said, moving on._ _

__He heard Knuckles call out, “And hey! Try to stay alive this time, right?”_ _

__Shadow gave a calculated look over his shoulder. “You try to stay alive too,” he said ominously._ _

__It was enough to make the guardian stand there hesitantly as Shadow took off at high speeds again, heading deeper into the zones to find Eggman. Well, that at least made one soul in the world that had no disdain or ulterior motives for him. It was a little refreshing as Shadow ground his teeth, mentally preparing himself NOT to kill the doctor when he again went through a series of jobs just for information._ _

__That information would be the end of it. He could finally avenge Maria properly and put his past to rest. Have a fitful night’s rest without scenes of the past to haunt him. Maybe even learn to live in the present . . . if he could find a purpose for himself. He wasn’t a hero, like Sonic. He had nothing to protect, like Knuckles. He was just a pawn without a reason to fight for Eggman. Eggman gave him purpose. Without Eggman telling him what to do . . . what WOULD he do?_ _

__He shook it off. Huffing, Shadow dug in his toes and sped on. The sooner he got to work, the sooner he got his answers._ _

__*_ _

__"ARGH! Stupid hunk of junk!"_ _

__Shadow watched passively to the side as one of Eggman's newest creations self-destructed, splattering a viscous gel everywhere. He sucked a deep breath through his nose. They weren't Eggman's original creations._ _

__"These things are dumb as doornails!" Eggman raged. "Useless! Rudimentary programming coupled with half-executed ideas! Slower than watching grass grow! Defenseless! Worthless!"_ _

__Crimson eyes gazed upon the gooey floor where the latest experiment had gone wrong yet again. He remembered these creations—Artificial Chaos. They were powerful yes, but slow and dim-witted, as the doctor had quickly realized. Shadow didn't remember much of them, but the more he watched Eggman struggle to improve them, the more he called back to mind. He remembered fighting them and protecting people. Perhaps, experiments gone wrong? They rapidly regenerated and multiplied, but needed far more fine-tuning than Gerald Robotnik had ever given them._ _

__"It's no wonder my grandfather slated them as failures! They're primitive copies without half the capabilities of the original! A waste of material! Incomplete hypothesis and nonsensical metaphysics!"_ _

__Shadow's lip curled as Eggman threw a brain module and shattered it against the wall. Smugly, with the new information Knuckles had given him, he sauntered up to the mad doctor. "Not that this performance of yours isn't amusing, Doctor," he said derisively, "but how about we make a deal?"_ _

__Eggman grumbled angrily as he yanked open a drawer full of Chaos drives. "You don't have anything to barter with," he proclaimed, pulling out another drive. "Can't even harness the Chaos energies correctly . . ." and he continued to mutter indiscriminately._ _

__Bemused, he watched the doctor struggle more. "All those Chaos Emeralds and you still can't get your machines to work correctly," Shadow scorned him. He crossed his arms, turning his face away, saying, "If you want to have the secret to get them to work, then perhaps you should listen to me."_ _

__Eggman growled in frustration and faced him, his glasses glinting in the fluorescent lights. He rocked back on his heels. "Fine, Shadow," he said peevishly, "what could you possibly have that would make my creations work?"_ _

__His spines stiffened in annoyance that he laid claimed to his grandfather's work as his own. Instead, he gave the doctor a self-righteous smile, drawling, "Well, that's for me to know and you to find out, isn't it?"_ _

__"Insolent pincushion . . ." Eggman muttered under his breath. "Fine. You want to know who shot your precious Maria?"_ _

__"Information for information," Shadow agreed, nodding his head toward the large human._ _

__When he said nothing more, he could imagine Eggman's eyes narrowing behind his blue glasses. "You first." Idly, knowing he had far more patience than the mad doctor, Shadow rocked back on his heels, settling comfortably as the only slash of dark against steel gray walls. Eggman's moustache practically bristled in anger as Shadow held out pointedly. After a short staring contest, he broke first._ _

__"Fine!" he barked. "You want to know the name of the man who shot Maria? Nolan Schmitz. That's him. Good luck finding him."_ _

__"Nolan Schmitz," Shadow repeated ominously, tasting the name on his tongue. A small, disturbed smile played at his lips. Nolan Schmitz. He finally had the name of the man who killed Maria. For a second, his mind started to slip off in the direction of what he could do to the man in retribution—he had to get him to bleed a lot. Maria had bled so much for such a frail, small creature, and he'd be sure Mr. Schmitz would bleed double—_ _

__"Erhem!" Eggman's impatient voice interrupted his daydreaming. Shadow blinked up at him. "And now for your part of this deal. How can I get my creations to work?"_ _

__Shadow almost laughed. "I don't know," he said first, causing Eggman to give an enraged, "WHAT!" He shook his head, saying, "But I do know how you can learn how to fix them. They're Artificial Chaos. The copies. You need the original to experiment on."_ _

__"The original?" Eggman said, his red face slowly fading to normal. "And just how am I supposed to get the original back?"_ _

__"Capture him." He smirked. "I met Knuckles the other day. He said when you shattered the Master Emerald, Chaos escaped again. Your ancient god of destruction is at large again, and you could easily bait him in with one of your Chaos Emeralds. Once you have him captured?" He shrugged. "Experiment to your heart's content."_ _

__Considering this thoughtfully, Eggman's mouth slowly pulled into an unpleasant smile as he looked back at the remains of his latest projects. He chuckled. "You see, my boy? This is why I like to work with you! You're far more useful than you give yourself credit for."_ _

__Shadow's good humor disappeared at Eggman's words, and his lip curled a little bit. "Whatever you say, Doctor. Enjoy tracking down your deity. I'm leaving."_ _

__"No you're not!" Eggman said quickly. He snapped his fingers at a couple of robots that immediately began to clean up the mess of his experiments. "You'll be perfect for fighting Chaos and catching him."_ _

__"You can find him first," Shadow said sharply. His quills stiffened a little. "I have unfinished business to take care of."_ _

__A feminine voice joined the conversation. "Speaking of unfinished business . . ."_ _

__Both males looked up to see the only female in the room. Eggman's face warped into a scowl while Shadow's face quickly deadpanned. How had she sneaked in again? Rouge quickly dropped from the ceiling with a smile, landing in between the two of them. Eggman's anger boiled quickly._ _

__"And just what do you think you're doing here?" he shouted loudly. "How did you get in?"_ _

__"The same way I always do, Doctor," she said with a bat of her lashes towards Eggman. He wasn't impressed._ _

__"I swear if G.U.N. is trying to stop me, I'll have you know, I have—"_ _

__"Enough robots to effectively stop us, yes, I know," Rouge said sweetly. She folded her wings and brightened. "However, I'm not here because of G.U.N. this time. I'm doing a favor."_ _

__Her smile turned on Shadow. Inwardly, he put up his defenses and crossed his arms, trying to figure out why she was far more cheerful than she needed to be. "Since when do you do favors?" he asked evenly._ _

__"Oh, I have my moments," she chirped, walking towards him. "Besides, this is great news, Shadow!" She laughed. "I can't wait to see the look on your face . . ."_ _

__"Spit it out, Rouge."_ _

__She chuckled, still too cheerful for Shadow's taste. She smoothed some nonexistent wrinkles on her cat suit. "Well, first of all, the doctor here is playing you." Eggman sputtered as Shadow's eyes narrowed at her. Rouge tossed her head, ears flicking. "He might know some things about your past, but he's deliberately holding out information that was asked to be passed on."_ _

__"You don't know what you're talking about!" Eggman interjected quickly. "You don't—"_ _

__"I know EXACTLY what I'm talking about," Rouge cut in sharply, eyes flashing. "You're deliberately trying to keep Shadow dancing on your strings, but that stops here, Eggman." She turned towards Shadow with elated and passionate eyes. "Shadow . . . Shadow, Maria is alive."_ _

__For a moment, Shadow couldn't even believe the phrase had left her mouth. Maria. Alive. He stared for a moment, astounded that she would say something so ridiculous. So HURTFUL. He could have believed Sonic would try to make a stupid joke like that, but Rouge? He heard his teeth clack together as his jaw ground. He had expected better of Rouge._ _

__His gaze flattened into a glower. "Don't you patronize me," he snarled at her. Her excitement was nipped in the bud as she took a step back away from his aggression. "Maria is DEAD!" he shouted hatefully, voice ringing in the quiet base._ _

__Rouge's wings shivered on her back. "S-Shadow, wait. I know you think—"_ _

__"I KNOW she is dead!" he practically roared. He advanced on her, fists clenched in white-hot fury. "I saw her get shot! I saw her blood! I saw her lifeless body!" Rouge cowed away, looking ready to flee—he was surprised she hadn't. He was surprised at his own uncontrollable anger, but he couldn’t find it in himself to stop himself. Molten eyes bored into hers. "So don't you DARE try to pretend she's alive or I'll wring your neck myself!"_ _

__For a second, anger touched Rouge's eyes. She stopped backing away and instead glared defiantly at him, even if her wings fluttered for flight. "Stop being so melodramatic!" she snapped at him. "You think I would lie to you? She survived, Shadow! She's—"_ _

__He lunged, and her quick thinking just barely saved her skull from getting crushed into Eggman's computers. Rage poured through Shadow until he thought his blood was going to boil his brain. His clenched fists shook as he leered up at the bat flying above his head, too high to catch without her avoiding him. Still, despite the death threat and hostility, she stuck around to yell at him, "I'm trying to help you, Shadow! Maria asked me herself to—"_ _

__"Shut up!" he howled, unable to even entertain the idea. "You're lying!"_ _

__"Listen to reason—!"_ _

__Shadow yanked open the drawer of Chaos drives, a hand digging into the racks. It wasn't a Chaos Emerald, but it would do the job._ _

__"Chaos Spear!"_ _

__Chaos energies leeched from the drives and filled him up before erupting from his extended hand as a weak lance of light. Rouge squealed and flitted out of the way, and the attack hit the ceiling. Rubble and dust fell as Dr. Eggman belted out, "Shadow, stop it! You'll destroy my base!"_ _

__"GET OUT!" Shadow's lips pulled back as he shook violently, fingers still tickled by Chaos energy. Rouge recoiled from his murderous gaze. "Get out! And don't come back!"_ _

__Finally, the infuriating bat scurried out of the room, using a vent she had presumably used to get inside. Shadow's chest heaved, and for a moment, his heart was embroiled with rage over her accusations. Maria. Alive. He scoffed to himself, controlling his shaking and ragged breathing. Maria was as dead as the rest of the ARK inhabitants._ _

__How dare she insinuate Maria was alive? Around the edges of Shadow’s fury lingered something that tasted far too much like regret. Rogue didn’t deserve that. She didn’t deserve anything he’d said to her, but why would she of all people joke about that? She knew to leave his past alone! Rogue of all people knew . . . Of course Rogue knew, which meant she was being serious—_ _

__Shadow trembled. She was wrong. She must have some wrong information that wasn’t cross-referenced correctly to make her believe . . . His throat bobbed. Maria had NIDS. If she got deathly ill from the sniffles, there was no way possible for her body to withstand the trauma of a bullet wound._ _

__Sucking in a sharp breath, Shadow turned and stalked for the exit._ _

__"Shadow!" Eggman called. "Where are you going?"_ _

__Shadow’s lip curled. He buried the painful hope and seized his hate again. "To settle my revenge once and for all!"_ _

 

 


	2. Reconciliation

**"It's been a long day without you, my friend**  
**And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again**  
**We've come a long way from where we began**  
**Oh, I'll tell you all about it when I see you again  
** **When I see you again"**

**See You Again _ Wiz Khalifa**

After a bout of rage, Shadow's anger finally simmered as he stared at the grave. 

_Nolan Schmidt._

Breathing deeply through his nose, Shadow looked down at the grave with a combination of frustration and ire. Of course he was dead. He never really thought about it, but he had been sealed in that pod for fifty years before Eggman released him. It only followed that the man was dead. Of course a heart attack had taken the man at the age of 75 before Shadow had the chance to exact any revenge. The world was unjust like that, and he had come all this way for nothing.

He briefly considered bashing the headstone. Deciding he wasn't that petty, Shadow huffed to himself and skated away, muffled anger stewing just beneath the surface.

_Good luck finding him._ Shadow's teeth ground together. The doctor had known all along that Nolan Schmidt was dead and had given him worthless information. Shadow would twist something useful out of the doctor for deception like that.

Igniting his skates, Shadow left the graveyard and his feet hit the pavement as he picked up speed. He was clenching his jaw so tightly at this point that he was sure he would completely shatter his teeth. Racing along the roads, whizzing between traffic and sweeping around curbs, Shadow thought he would never have peace again. He felt blinded by anger constantly: the rage seemed to consume him from the inside out. It blinded him, it fueled him, it exhausted him. And at this point, it was all he had. If he let go of it now, he had nothing. He WAS nothing without it.

Driven along with this fury, Shadow left the cities of humans, sped over the connecting bridge above the sea, and instead raced through Green Hill Zone on South Island. Faintly Shadow allowed his mind to dwell on cemeteries. Perhaps he could visit Maria's grave? He bit his lip as he tried to swallow the idea of it. It was customary to bring flowers too, right? Daisies and sunflowers had always been her favorite flowers.

Shadow's brows knit as he raced through Green Hill Zone. Trying and failing to shake off the negative thoughts, Shadow skated across the expansive fields of grass, eyes lidded against the bright sun rising higher that afternoon.

In the distance, he heard a sonic boom.

On edge when he heard Sonic running in the same area he was, Shadow diverted his path towards what he hoped was the opposite direction. He didn't have the time or effort to deal with that hedgehog today. Even if he had to take the long way around to the Scrap Brain Zone, he would try his best to avoid Sonic.

And as it turned out, he didn't try hard enough to stay away from him.

"Shadow! Stop!"

The blue blur zipped in front of him, and Shadow skidded to a halt, a small burst from his shoes stopping him quicker. Instantly on edge, Shadow's shoulders stiffened. Sonic's quills were rigid and his fists clenched as he stared at Shadow. "All right, for real this time, what's your issue?"

"You are, if you don't get out of my way!"

"Rogue tells you Maria is alive and all the thanks she gets is a Chaos Spear?"

A feral growl rose up from Shadow's chest. His hackles rose aggressively. "You'll get the same if you speak her name again!" At least with Sonic it was easy to be angry. Far too easy. The blue hero rubbed him wrong all the time, and insisting on the impossible made it worse. Feeling helpless and confused, Shadow stuck even closer to what he knew.

Releasing a sound of frustration, Sonic splayed his legs as he stood in Shadow's way. "Eggman's really got you fooled, doesn't he?" Shadow's jaw clacked together. "But then again, I doubt it's just Eggman. I bet you won't even let yourself believe for a second that Maria's alive!"

Temper snapping, Shadow charged at Sonic blindly. Lunging with the intent to shatter the blue hero's teeth, Shadow's weight pitched forward when Sonic evaded him. A swift kick pounded into his side before he could recover, and Shadow stumbled back as Sonic skidded out of reach again.

He attacked again, curling up tightly with a violent spin dash. Sonic mimicked him and the two collided, spines ripping like chainsaws against one another. Falling apart and pressing the attack, Shadow leapt with a kick and missed the blue hedgehog's head by inches. Leaning back, Sonic's knuckles whizzed past his cheek, and he grabbed his arm, giving him a furious head butt.

A heavy sound grunted from Sonic. A solid punch landed on Shadow's jaw, and Shadow reeled backwards at the hit, pain flaring from his mouth. He tried to spin dash the speedy hero, but Sonic fled out of his reach again, trying to put distance between them so he could speak.

"And people call ME the drama queen!" Sonic exclaimed in exasperation. He wiped some sweat from his forehead, and Shadow did the same, uncomfortably warm in the afternoon heat. Shadow sucked on his bleeding lip, one of his incisors having cut the softer flesh when Sonic's knuckles connected to him. Sonic snapped, "Get it through that thick head of yours, Shadow, Maria's alive and she wants to see you! I told her I didn't think you'd listen after what you did to Rogue, so don't think I'm not above beating you until I can drag you to that house."

Shadow bristled at the mild threat. Sonic was a smack-talker, sure, but a threat? Shadow spat the glob of blood out on a flower. "You just picked the wrong fight, faker," Shadow growled dangerously at him. Sonic's gaze flattened just as Shadow charged like a battering ram. Sonic took off running, baiting Shadow along as they tore along Green Hill Zone's plains in the afternoon sun.

Shadow's fingers tingled with the urge for a Chaos Spear, for any Chaos energies whatsoever. He poured the energy into his shoes to keep up with Sonic while at the same time he yearned for more—a Chaos Emerald. The Doctor sure was keeping his grubby fingers on those gems, wasn't he?

Growling, Shadow swept into a swift spin dash and collided with Sonic. The blue hero flew to the side, skidded on his feet, and lurched forward running again. Blue spines sliced at Shadow, and he combated them with his own, searching to overpower his counterpart. When Sonic began to pull ahead in their fervid race, Shadow poured a burst of Chaos energies into his shoes to catch up, fist raised high. His knuckles passed through thin air as Sonic stopped on a dime—Shadow inwardly seethed at his ability for sharper stops and turns—and a violent homing attack crashed down on his face.

Pain cut across his eye at the blue hero's lethal spines, and he staggered back, blinking through a rivulet of blood. Sonic's gaze was serious without being angry, and Shadow's hackles rose again. How come he was bleeding and Sonic wasn't? He'd fix that.

"C'mon, Shadow," Sonic tried to persuade him again. He jerked his head towards civilization. "What have you got to lose at this point? Look, we can just check it out, and if you don't think it's Maria—"

"It won't be!" he shouted, feeling as if his heart was being put through the grinder. By Chaos, this was why he never let himself hope. He couldn't . . . dare hope . . . but if she was, that meant she had seen everything he had done when Eggman woke him from his slumber. She would have seen him trying to destroy the world, the very thing she had asked him to save. If she was alive, he couldn't face her after that. She would have seen exactly what he had become . . . He shook his head, crimson eyes blazing with fear. "She's dead, Sonic, so don't waste my time!"

"I was just at her house, Shadow!" Sonic tried again. "There! In the flesh!"

A tiny tremble shook Shadow's ribcage, and he swore it wasn't because he was beginning to hope. This was ridiculous. He was at a place beyond hope. He clenched his hands into fists, reacting the only way he knew how with his re-colored doppelganger. "For the last time, Sonic, get out of my way and out of my life!"

The two blurs engaged furiously again, whirls of black and blue punching and kicking each other until they really were black and blue. The wear of the battle wore on Shadow as his lungs began to ache for air and his body began to weaken beneath Sonic's onslaught. However, for how hard Sonic fought, he pivoted sharply and swung wide for the side of Shadow's head. Body reacting quicker than his mind did, Shadow let his momentum carry him out of the blue hero's reach and then, with a burst of Chaos energies in his skate, gave Sonic a vicious roundhouse kick to the face.

Sonic flipped over and landed hard on his back with a heavy whump. Skates blazing with fiery heat, Shadow stamped down at him only for Sonic's reflexes to whirl him out of harm's way. Rolling to a stop some distance away, Sonic flipped back up to a standing position, chest heaving with exertion. Shadow allowed his lip curl with satisfaction that the hero's nose was bleeding more than enough for his pleasure. Perhaps he had broken it?

Sonic wiped his arm under his nose, the fur coming away streaked with blood. Shadow gnashed his teeth, sucking up precious air as they stalemated again. Sonic persisted, "I know you're hard-headed, but this is ridiculous! Why don't you believe us?"

Shadow's jaw locked stiff at the question. Restless, he shifted to a more aggressive position and refused to answer the question. Deep down, he thought he knew, but he didn't want to face it. He couldn't bring himself to believe in anything at this point when he had already let a part of himself die along with her. And if he could have Maria back, how in the world could he possibly find that part of him that he thought had died with her?

"C'mon, she's less than half an hour run from here! Come see for yourself, and if you still think it's not her, then fine! We'll be off your back, right? We'll leave you alone."

That in itself was tempting enough for Shadow. Eyelid twitching as blood ran down from a cut on his forehead, he considered it. He could get them all off his back by taking one worthless trip to the city? Teeth stained red from his bleeding lip, Shadow bared his sharp incisors at Sonic.

"Fine! If it will keep you idiots out of my business, let's go!"

He took off towards the city without even knowing where he was going. Sonic followed as they raced along at incredibly high speeds, and after a few minutes of being too angry to slow down, Shadow finally allowed Sonic to lead the way.

They backtracked over the connecting bridge and back into Station Square. The massive city was eaten up beneath skates and sneakers as the two blurs zipped along, one in a far more volatile mood than the other. Shadow scrubbed irritably at the pain in his forehead, annoyed that it wasn't stopping bleeding. He was upset about everything. The entire futility of the situation. Once he got this idiocy sorted, he'd shake the girl pretending to be Maria and punch Sonic in the mouth hard enough that the hero would be missing some teeth from his trademark smile.

Sonic cut some sharp turns that Shadow fought not to fall behind with. Station Square fell behind into a series of sprawling highways over rough terrain. He was sucking wind at this point, his ribs hurting more than he cared to admit, but he smugly saw that Sonic's ribcage was heaving just as much as his was. Served him right, poking his nose into business it didn't belong in.

The cross between cities was short as Sonic suddenly slowed in a series of neighborhoods on the edge of Central City. Shadow followed him into a neighborhood called Melrose until Sonic stopped short at an open gate in front of a yellow house.

Shadow heart leapt, and his first thought was, _that's too young to be Maria, isn't it?_

It certainly LOOKED like Maria. Well, it looked like her when she was younger. In the pictures he had seen. The girl was only a toddler, her blond hair and blue eyes enough to send Shadow's heart into a skipping fit. She was squatting down; her orange sundress puffed out around her knees as her hands sought to contain whatever was skittering inside them.

Blinking rapidly, he tried to hide his confusion—and get that infernal blood out of his eye. He wiped his arm over the bleeding cut on his forehead again. Instead of proclaiming that she was Maria, Sonic grinned and waved a cheerful hand.

"Hey! Rosie!"

The child looked up. She gasped, popped up to a standing position immediately, and her hands let go of what turned out to be a grasshopper. Her hands clapped over her mouth loudly, and Shadow shrank a little under her overwhelmingly excited gaze. She bounced on her feet.

Sonic laughed at her reaction, wiping his own bleeding nose again. "I told ya I'd get him here one way or another! Now where's Maria at?"

Rosie immediately squealed and fled up the porch steps of the house, hollering at the top of her lungs, "Gramma! Gramma, Sonic brought Shadow! Shadow's here! Shadow's here!" The screen door slammed shut noisily behind her as she disappeared into the house.

Feeling increasingly uncomfortable about what he had walked into, Shadow cut his eyes towards Sonic. He just pinched his bleeding nose and gave a little grin, rocking back on his heels. "That's Rosie," he said, as if Shadow hadn't deduced that already. "Met her last time I came here."

Shadow narrowed his eyes suspiciously at him, but the screen door opened again and slammed once more as a new figure emerged. On the steps, a small voice gave a tiny gasp.

"Shadow . . ."

He jerked his head towards the porch, and he stared uncomprehending at the person he was looking at. She was an elderly woman with blond hair peppered with grey. She was a little frail, and her high-waisted skirt made that more apparent. She was barefoot. But what really made Shadow freeze between his fight-or-flight instincts were her eyes, as blue as the planet itself.

Those eyes KNEW him.

She smiled weakly, crow's feet crinkling around her eyes. She was crying, tears welling up quickly at the sight of him, and Shadow stood helplessly in the driveway without an idea what to do. The uncanny urge to flee suddenly seized him when she descended the steps of the house and approached him, arms extended toward him.

"Shadow—Shadow, it's me," she said. Her voice was all wrong. But it sounded just the same. She was too old to be Maria. But her breath hitched as she said, "I—I just can't believe it . . . It's really YOU. I thought—I didn't think I'd ever see you again."

Dumbfounded, Shadow stood stupidly as she carefully got on her knees before hugging him tightly. Her arms threaded through his dangerously sharp quills with a skill that spoke of familiarity with hedgehogs. His face was squished into her chest, and he stared uncomprehending over her shoulder. Rosie was on the porch, giggling quietly and grinning. She waved at him.

After a crushing hug that went on long enough to make Shadow sufficiently uncomfortable, the elderly woman let go of him and turned to look at their company. She smiled, wiping her tears. "Thank you for bringing him back to me, Sonic," she said to him.

Sonic let go of his nose to see if it had finally stopped bleeding. "Aw, it's no big deal! I know how to handle ol' Shads here." Shadow's attention finally was able to focus, and he shifted his gaze to Sonic, trying to feel as offended as he should be. Instead, Sonic just winked at him—he WINKED at him—pointed a finger, and chirped, "You two have some catching up to do, so I'm out. See ya on the flip side!"

Panic seized Shadow. He was leaving him alone with these two girls he didn't even know? For one wild moment, Shadow nearly called out for Sonic to come back, but the blue hero was gone in a flash, the air rippling lazily around them.

"Oh, you're bleeding." Shadow's wide eyes snapped back to the stranger. She was reaching out to wipe the blood trickling into his eye. Alarmed, Shadow jerked back and lifted a hand to his forehead, covering the cut.

Maria finally slowed. Her hand dropped. "Shadow? Are you all right?"

No. No, he wasn't all right. He was looking at an old woman who claimed she was the fragile girl he had seen get shot and die. He was trying to wrap his mind around the thought that if Maria had survived the bullet, then that meant she had been alive for the fifty years he was asleep. Which placed her age . . . roughly around where this woman was? But it wasn't even possible. Her NIDS should have killed her if the bullet didn't. She couldn't possibly survive on Earth, that was why she had been on the ARK . . . But the hair, the eyes, the mannerisms . . . They all mirrored her. He couldn't dare let himself believe it was really her, but by Chaos he desperately hoped it was.

Instead of voicing his internal turmoil, Shadow stuttered out an intelligent, "I—I . . ."

Her worried expression gentled. She took his hand, and the contact with her made him jump. "Come here," she said, "come inside."

With wooden legs, Shadow followed Maria up the porch steps and into the strange house. Rosie followed after them, eyes only for Shadow. The first room of the house was a living room, and Maria led him to a blue and green couch that had some sort of faint, pink flower pattern on it.

"Sit down," she told him with a reassuring smile. Mechanically, he did exactly as she asked. "I'll get something to stop the bleeding." Shadow's eyes trailed after her as she headed towards the kitchen but took a left up some stairs he couldn't see from where he sat.

Awkwardly left with Rosie, Shadow fidgeted and avoided her gaze. Did she have to stare like he was some sort of mutant freak? She barely blinked, and Shadow grew a little claustrophobic in the colorful room. The curtains were blue, the couches floral, the throw pillows an off-colored green and pink; they had a tacky pink daisy on the front. The coffee table between the couches was glass but had a glaringly bright orange vase on it with a shabby fake bouquet in it. At least the carpet was a merciful beige color. Clearly this woman wasn't an interior decorator.

When Rosie stared long enough that Shadow was afraid she would treat him like a petting zoo, he scowled. He barked, "Didn't anyone teach you not to stare?"

He said it too sharply. Rosie took a step back and guiltily averted her gaze from him. Dipping his own head remorsefully, he reminded himself that this girl wasn't like the scientists from the ARK. She was just curious—but then again, so were the scientists on the ARK.

Before he could formulate what he hoped was a good apology, Maria came back down the stairs with a small cloth, peroxide and a band-aid. Quietly, biting her lip, Maria dabbed the cut clean and placed the band-aid in place even if with his fur it wouldn't stay stuck for long. When he continued to gawk at her, she finally pleaded, "Shadow, say something."

After one more completely bewildered moment, Shadow tore his eyes away from her and his brow knitted. He shook his head, fists clenching up as he sought to explain himself. Explain HER. "You're not—She can't have—" The words were coming out garbled again. Angry that he couldn't even express himself properly, Shadow stood to his feet, muttering to himself, "She couldn't have survived . . . They said she died . . ." Finally, his red eyes looked at her again, and he shook his head. "Maria died," he told her even though he doubted himself more and more. "You're not her."

Her eyes dropped and her shoulders caved at his harsh words. Frustration rose in Shadow knowing he'd hurt her. It was all impossible. Everything they were saying, nothing—

"What if I told you how I survived?" she asked him gently.

"You didn't survive!" Shadow threw out at her. Shaking his head at the slip, he paced towards the door. "MARIA didn't survive," he corrected himself, shaking as he clung to the only thing he thought he knew.

"Shadow."

He flinched at the tone of her voice that sounded so insufferably close to the tone Maria used. Patient and calm and intelligent, ready to talk him through whatever he didn't understand. That reassuring tone when he was frustrated.

"Shadow, come here. Sit down." His ear twitched, and he looked back at the woman to see she was patting that ugly floral couch again. Where did she even find such a revolting piece of furniture? "Give me a chance, Shadow. Let me talk before you make a decision."

Her voice was soothing. Reluctantly, Shadow relaxed his fists and returned to the couch and sat down. Rosie, curious as ever and apparently over the fact that he had snapped at her, scrambled up on the opposite chair, staring with wonder.

Maria clasped her hands in her lap and wrung them as she chose where to begin. "I know what you saw," she started carefully. "I was shot getting you inside that escape pod, and I know you think I died of either blood loss or just the trauma alone." Shadow's ears flattened against his head at the reminder of the scene before lifting back up to listen.

"I didn't die, though," Maria said, "I passed out. The G.U.N. soldiers broke in the door and tried to stop the bleeding. I was a civilian, not a scientist, so—" and Maria faltered for the first time with a small knit of her brows, "so I was supposed to live. Even if I was the granddaughter of a scientist."

When Shadow just stared, Maria smiled gently at him and placed a hand on top of his. His entire arm twitched with the urge to yank it away. "I was taken into emergency care immediately, but I was dying quickly. Even after grandfather and you helped my body get closer to health, I still couldn't handle the trauma. They said I faded into a coma."

She paused to see if he wanted to say anything or comment, but Shadow kept his mouth shut. He didn't trust himself to speak at this point. He couldn't believe he was entertaining the idea that she was telling the truth, but he had no reason to distrust her—if anything, he had every reason to hope that it was as she said. Unable to reconcile his past with his present, Shadow waited tensely for her to finish her story.

Her thumb stroked along the back of his hand as she murmured, "They had to contact my mother and father. They made up some story suggesting that I had been caught in the crossfire from one of the experiments since only the scientists were supposed to die during the routing. Mom and Dad didn't want to give up on me, but before the week was over, I was surviving only because of life support."

Shadow's chest squeezed uncomfortably at the thought of frail little Maria hooked up to life support. Looking down at the floor to hide his unease, he heard her say, "When G.U.N. was apprehending everything on the ARK, they found one of Grandfather's unfinished serums for me along with samples of your blood." Shadow looked up sharply then, wondering if she was going to go there.

She did, saying, "They tried the serum first. It did little to help at all. It steadied my heartbeat for a week, but I was still dying. Mom and Dad couldn't pull the plug on me, so when G.U.N. said they could try one more thing, they decided to try it." Maria gave a weak smile. "After all, if I was going to die regardless, what was a little desperation?'

His breathing thinned. They had no idea what that could have done to her. His mouth opened to say such, and then he shut his mouth. Clearly, if this was true, it had done . . . perfectly fine for her . . .

Maria hesitated to see if he would speak, and when he didn't, she continued, "They injected me with a vial of your blood. No one knew what the effects would be, and . . . honestly, we're still not sure if there were any effects." She looked away, chewing her bottom lip in thought. Shadow's eyes glued to the motion he remembered so well. "It . . . was like a miracle, Shadow. After being in a coma for six months, my health improved. The wound was finally healing properly, my immune system strengthened, and I—well, I woke up seven months after that day on the ARK."

His mouth dried out. Shadow avoided her gaze, looking down on his shoes. She spoke with such conviction he was actually starting to believe her. She squeezed his hand, unable to offer more support since she couldn't know what was going through his mind. "They kept me in recovery for far longer than I needed. They were afraid my NIDS wasn't really cured, but they couldn't find any traces of it. The only reason they could even tell I was sick in the first place was because my immune system was still weak for someone of my age. They took blood samples, they ran tests and X-rays and performed every medical procedure in the book, but they couldn't find anything. I was just . . . healed. No explanation able to be found. When it became apparent they couldn't keep me any longer, they finally sent me home with my family."

Maria took a deep breath. "I was obsessed with finding answers," she said with a shake of her head. "I couldn't believe that your blood had cured me just like that. When I thought . . ." She turned away too, making them nearly back to back they had turned from one another so much. "When I thought you were dead," she said softly, "and Grandfather executed, I . . . I felt like I had lost so much. My parents," and she gave a weak laugh, "they were so good to me, but they couldn't really fill what holes had been left. No one could. So instead I filled myself with science. I chased after knowledge with the fear that perhaps your blood really could have devastating side effects."

Shadow's hands knuckled into fists, but Maria didn't move her hand from his. She kept talking as if she had to fill the silence, saying, "I studied biochemistry, molecular biology, immunology, pharmacology, physiology; anything I could possibly get my hands on regarding the human body, and Mobian biology too. I studied everything I could, even Chaos Theory! I thought . . . the answers had to lie SOMEWHERE. I didn't believe in miracles. Grandfather had brought you to life through the power of science, and I was determined to find out how."

She paused from her fervid speaking. Finally, she sighed softly. "However, for all I wanted to know, there was very little information to be found. Much was lost or destroyed in the ARK raid, and G.U.N. had confiscated what was left of Grandfather's research. They didn't have much regarding your creation and biology—mostly they retained the," and she faltered slightly again, "the weapons research. There was nothing to assist me. I even tried analyzing my own biology for years, experimenting with my own blood, but . . . I still can't find the answer."

Finally, she seemed to slow down. Shadow stared at the carpet some more, trying to swallow the story. It sounded so real. So true. And she sounded so much like Maria with the way she unconsciously began to ramble about her science. Shadow could only be thankful that this time it was in terms even he could understand with what education he had.

"Shadow? Shadow, please, say something."

He blinked, coming back into himself. Taking a sharp breath, wondering when he'd stopped breathing, Shadow glanced down on their hands. Hers were just as big as his were now, weren't they? Slowly, he relaxed the tension that had built up within him and let his tight fist uncurl.

"SHADOW. Please, do you believe me?"

After a moment of gathering his courage, Shadow looked up at her. Those wide blue eyes were open and bared with nervousness and a painful hope that Shadow shared. His belly clenched. He wanted to believe her. Chaos, he wanted to believe her so badly, but he wasn't even sure if he did or not.

His throat bobbed. "I—"

The doorknob to the house turned, and Shadow gave a full body twitch as the door opened. Voices filtered in, "Walter, I said I was fine! Geez, won't even let a lady carry her own bread—Oh!"

In walked a belly, and attached to the overly large belly was another woman with blond hair and blue eyes. She stopped short, blinking widely at Shadow before she looked at Maria and stuttered, "Oh, I-I didn't know you had company, Mom. Do we need to come back later?"

Shadow's brain froze. _Mom?_

Maria stood immediately, saying, "No! No, come in, come in. It's fine."

At the same time, Rosie hopped off the couch, squealing, "Mama!" and raced to hug the woman walking through the door. Behind her a man with a mop of brown hair had several grocery bags on his arms and was looking curiously into the home.

"Mom? What's going on—? OH! Oh, this must be Shadow! Hey, Shadow, good to meet you! I'm Walter!"

Standing uncertainly, Shadow approached the man who deposited one armful of bags on the living room floor and kicked the door shut. Shadow took the proffered hand, shaking it awkwardly as the younger woman turned and nearly bumped him with her exceedingly pregnant stomach.

She first handed everything she was carrying to her husband—that being a bag of sandwich bread and her purse. She stretched a slender hand down to him. "How do you do, Shadow? My name is Clara."

He shook her hand too, feeling even more like a deer in headlights. A little body flung herself in between them and Shadow jumped, taking a swift step backwards as Rosie grinned widely at him. "I'm Rosie!" she said brightly. "Hi!"

Timid now at meeting regular people in a clearly domestic setting, Shadow shifted on his feet, trying to get his tongue to work. Maria gave him a gentle smile, and gestured to the newcomers. "Shadow, this is my daughter, her husband, and my granddaughter. Why don't you say hello?"

His ears flicked in annoyance before they bent backwards submissively. Did she have to talk to him like he was a child? He knew how to meet people . . . Rosie bounced on her heels, waiting expectantly. Shadow dipped his head shyly and finally mumbled, "Hello."

A shrieking giggle made him even more flustered as the situation seemed to spiral beyond what he was capable of handling. Rosie flung herself forward and face-planted into his chest, and he panicked for one moment before realizing she hadn't cut herself on his spines. Just as fast as she hugged him she let go, turning and patting Clara's stomach. "This is George," she said. "He's gonna be my little brother, but Mama says he needs more time to cook." She pulled on her mother's floral dress. "How many more weeks?"

"Three more," Clara said with a smile. She walked past them to carefully ease herself down onto one of the couches, heaving out a tired and relieved groan. She kicked off her flats. Helplessly, Shadow looked around, wondering what he was supposed to do now that they had exchanged names. He belatedly had the idea to help Walter pick up all the groceries, but the man did so before Shadow could, all the while wrinkling his nose so his black glasses would stay on his face. Shadow stepped aside so he could make it to the kitchen.

"Hey, Shadow!" Walter called as he disappeared into the other room. "You should stay for dinner! Spaghetti and meatballs! Well, frozen meatballs, but it's going to be good! I make a mean spaghetti!"

A hand fell on his shoulder, and Shadow jumped again, looking up to see Maria hovering. She lifted her brows in concern at him, asking, "Are you all right?"

He dropped his gaze. "Yes," he replied reflexively, "I'm fine." Oh, he was far beyond what the definition of fine was. He was a complete mess. Maria had survived somehow—no less, he had supposedly been able to heal her the way he had been created to. Maria had survived, she had lived her life, had kids, was a grandmother. Had kids—where was her . . . husband?

Shadow's heart withered. He had almost destroyed this planet when she had been living on it, and she hadn't even made one reference to that catastrophe.

"Shadow?"

He blinked, coming out of his reverie, and automatically repeated, "I'm fine." He was confused as hell, but he thought he was okay. He looked up at Maria—and Chaos, those really were her eyes, weren't they?—but before he could say anything, a pair of small hands tugged on his. He looked down.

Rosie grinned at him, tugging on his hand. "We're gonna be good friends, right?"

Shadow bit his lip and his spines flexed defensively. He knew the proper answer to that, but he wasn't sure if he had it in his heart to let go. Instead, he managed another awkward word, managing to get out, "Right."

She giggled, and she pulled his hand, dragging him towards the door. "Come on! Let's go catch some grasshoppers! Oh—" and she turned around suddenly, facing Maria. "He's your friend too," she said, biting her lip nervously. "Can we go out and play?"

Maria's eyes softened at them, and Shadow's heart finally began to melt. "Of course you can," she said with a smile.

Her answer caused Rosie to shriek excitedly and Shadow's ears to plaster back on his head at the pitch. "Yay! Come on, Shadow! Let's go!"

Following the girl that was only a couple inches shorter than himself, Shadow found himself back in the front yard with a diminutive-looking Maria. Rosie gestured for him, coaching him in the fine art of critter catching.

"See there? That's a grasshopper. We're gonna catch them all, but you have to sneak up on them or they'll hop away . . ."

Half-listening to her explanation, Shadow looked up when the door opened again and this time it was Maria, coming out barefoot onto the grass. Rosie's eyes widened, and she asked, "Gramma?"

"Can I join you two?" she asked, eyes lingering more over Shadow than they did Rosie.

Still, she just caused Rosie to giggle, "But Gramma, you don't like bugs!" She turned her all-knowing eyes on Shadow, saying solemnly, "Gramma doesn't like bugs at all. She really hates spiders."

Maria's lips twitched at Rosie's conniving tone, and she knelt down into the grass with them, saying, "Well, grasshoppers aren't so bad. At least, not like spiders." She shuddered, the shake traveling visibly through her shoulders. "I can handle most bugs, but I don't care what kind of arachnid it is, they're creepy and they're always in the house!"

Amusement stabbed Shadow briefly before Rosie grinned, her pert little nose wrinkling. "I know! Lemme see if I can find a spider!"

The little girl raced towards the side of the house, peeking in the bushes as Maria shouted out, "Oh don't you dare little girl! You know Gramma doesn't like spiders!"

All she received in response to that was, "I'll protect you!" and another scheming giggle.

Maria huffed a little, and Shadow waited hesitantly. He cleared his throat to get her attention, and asked, "Um . . . Should I stop her?"

Shaking her head, Maria looked into the grass where they crouched. "No," she finally replied. "She might torment me a little with it if she finds one, but I'll be fine."

She crept forward a little, reaching out towards something. It jumped away at the last second causing Maria to jerk backwards and nearly hit her butt trying to avoid it. Shadow arched a brow at her.

"So . . . you don't like bugs?"

Maria pursed her lips and sent him a look. "Not particularly," she told him. However, she crouched again on the hunt for a grasshopper, so Shadow took his cue from her and began looking as well. "They really aren't so bad, but when they start invading MY living space, that's a completely different story. If they would just keep out of the house, I'd be more than fine with bugs living in the world!" She gave him a wry glance. "Makes one even miss the ARK a little bit."

His ears swiveled. His red eyes found his prey, a large and squat grasshopper. "We had mice and lizards," he commented. Were rodents and reptiles different?

"But they were quarantined and were carefully monitored," she said in regards to the minor experiments. "Bugs are just . . . kinda creepy, honestly. Spiders are the worst though. Ugh! Just—too many eyes and legs on one creature! And pincers? Were those really necessary?"

Snatching up the insect, Shadow held it up for Maria's view. "How's this one?" he asked. "It's pretty fat."

She recoiled minutely, leaning away with a small grimace. "Yes—very fat. And it's not a grasshopper, it's a cricket."

"A cricket?" Was there a difference?

Maria nodded, face twisting more, and Shadow's heart panged at the familiar sight of the little wrinkle over her nose. "Yes. A katydid, and it's actually a rather large one, so can you let it go now?"

Shadow gazed at it, and before he decided to release it—after all, Rosie would probably want to see it, right?—the girl in question came running back. She held up a spider by its long, spindly leg. "Look, Gramma!"

Maria squealed promptly, scrambling back as she held up a hand defensively. "Oh, Rosie! Oh, keep that thing away from me!"

She was momentarily saved by Rosie catching sight of the cricket. "Ooh! He's so big!"

Shadow held it up for her as she ogled over it. She held up her own catch for him. "This is a granddaddy long leg," she told him. "Mama doesn't like them, but I do!" She held up the tiny spider that was frantically flailing its long legs.

Maria pressed a hand down on her heart. "Right," she said a little stiffly. "Why don't you show it to your father? He always seems to enjoy such things with you."

Rosie's cheeks puffed up. "Okay!" She raced into the house with her catch.

Sensing Maria's discomfort, Shadow released the cricket too. They knelt together for a quiet moment on the lawn, and Shadow found himself nervously pulling up the grass. As the sun began to dip towards setting, his hands stilled as he realized where they were.

Earth. He and Maria were . . . on Earth. That was the dream. For them both to make it to Earth and his throat tightened. Somehow, someway, they had made it, hadn't they?

"Shadow?" He seized a breath and looked up at her. She gnawed on her lip before asking softly, "Shadow, are you really all right? You've . . . barely said anything."

That lump in his throat was growing. Shadow wet his lips, and he looked her in her blue eyes, searching for the truth. He rasped, "Maria . . . It—It's really you, isn't it?"

She blinked around suddenly moist eyes. She smiled at him though, nodding her head and taking his hand. "Yes. Yes, it's me, Shadow."

His hand clenched into a fist under her touch. Looking away, he avoided her gaze and swallowed thickly, feeling the walls he had erected beginning to fall. "I thought . . ." His muzzle twitched irritably as he sought to find his words that had evaded him ever since he'd step foot in her yard. His shoulders hunched. "I thought . . . I lived thinking that you—you'd died," he managed gruffly, trying to hide the quiver in his voice. "I almost . . . almost . . ."

Her hand squeezed his affectionately. "I know," she assured him.

Shadow shook his head sharply, his spines swinging with the force of the motion. He stared nearly unseeing at the grass, saying shakily, "No, I—Maria, I almost . . . The world, I almost destroyed it. I wasn't—I didn't mean—" but an evil little voice in him whispered, _But you did. You were gladly going to destroy the world and every living creature on this planet._

And his plans had unknowingly included Maria.

A tremble shook his body at the thought. The guilt tangled his words up. "Maria, I—I didn't mean . . . I'm sorry, I—" His hands clenched tighter, and he squeezed his eyes shut against a suspicious prick of wetness. "I . . . You were dead—I thought I—I didn't mean . . ."

"I know, I know," she reassured him softly. "Shh, come here."

His muscles twitched when she pulled him to her, but he willingly collapsed into her arms that threaded around his spines. Voice catching, Shadow bit his lip hard to control the tears welling up, but he didn't think it was helping. Wrapping his arms around her and clutching her close, Shadow's chest heaved as he buried his face into her chest.

He shuddered. "I missed you so much," he admitted in a muffled undertone. Fingers digging into her, Shadow's ears dipped backwards.

"I missed you too," she murmured softly. He flinched as if his heart had been shot when she kissed the top of his forehead. He gritted his teeth and forcibly choked down the sob that wanted out.

Instead, Maria held him tenderly as he fought his tears as if his life depended on it. Her hands petted him soothingly in the quiet yard, and Shadow was thankful she never let go.

For the first time in a long time, Shadow felt at home.


	3. Stargazing

  
**“But if you close your eyes**   
**Does it almost feel like nothing changed at all?**   
**And if you close your eyes**   
**Does it almost feel like you’ve been here before?”**

**Pompeii __ Bastille**   


Waking slowly, Shadow’s ears twitched that morning as he heard movement upstairs. He opened his eyes and blinked a little owlishly at the sunlight streaming into the living room and stretched languidly. His eyes lidded peacefully in the living room.

Maria was alive, her son-in-law could cook spaghetti, and her ugly floral couch wasn’t the worst thing to sleep on. Folding his arms under his chin, Shadow lounged for a moment more on the couch and released a contented sigh. Quickly though, his ears drooped a little.

He owed Rouge an apology. A big one. Technically he owed Sonic an apology too, but he wasn’t really keen on admitting that to the blue blur. Shadow frowned. He needed to pay Doctor Eggman a visit for tricking him.

Feet pounded rapidly on the stairs. Sitting up, Shadow looked towards the kitchen to see Rosie nearly trip on the last step of the stairwell. She bobbled and wobbled, socked feet sliding on the wooden floor before she turned into the carpeted living room. She wore a pair of pink leggings and a bright pink and yellow shirt.

“Good morning, Shadow!”

He nodded towards his new acquaintance, saying, “Good morning.” Rosie plopped on the couch next to him and extended her shoes toward him.

“Tie these for me?”

Her words almost came out more as a command than a request. Shadow took the small shoes, wondering when Maria or Rosie’s parents would wake up. Surely they were far more qualified to do this than he was? However, Rosie waited for no one and immediately put her legs up on the couch and shoved her feet into each waiting shoe. Then, she waited for Shadow to tie them.

Nervously, Shadow’s quills twitched. He stole a glance to his own shoes before looking at Rosie’s laces. His were just slip-ons. He’d never tied a shoe in his life. Come to think of it, he wasn’t sure he’d ever tied a knot before in his life either. Even Maria had worn slip-ons aboard the ARK. Instead of voicing his concerns, Shadow pressed his lips and took up the lacy challenge before him.

Almost immediately, Rosie piped up, “You’re doing it wrong.”

His red eyes flicked her way. He lifted a brow, asking, “You know how to tie your shoes?”

“No,” she said, pursing up her lips and narrowing her eyes, “Gramma still helps me. Don’t you know how to tie shoes?”

For some reason, at the slightly condescending tone of a five year old, Shadow’s irritation rose. “You don’t know how to tie shoes.”

She huffed and crossed her arms. “I’m five,” she said plainly to him, “and you’re old. You should know.” Before he could respond to that, she grabbed the laces too, saying, “You pull it under like this—and then yank them tight! Then, um, you make bunny ears.” They fought for a moment trying to make the loops stay. “And then the bunny goes in his hole, but there’s so many holes I don’t know which one.”

The two struggled a moment more. Shadow ended up pulling the loops through each other and completely canceling them out and they had to start over. The second time he picked a different bunny hole and made some mess of a knot, but Rosie proclaimed that it was wrong.

“Then why don’t you do it?” Shadow said in annoyance, letting the laces drop and crossing his arms.

Rosie mimicked his position. “Because I don’t know which rabbit hole is the right one!”

“Then how do you know I haven’t picked the right one?” Shadow argued. He gave a gesture to her shoes. “They’re tied, aren’t they?”

“But they’re not tied RIGHT,” Rosie complained right back.

He opened his mouth to respond, and catching sight of someone from the corner of his eye, he looked up sharply. Maria stood leaning against the wall in her pajamas with a bemused expression on her face. Shadow resisted the urge to blush while at the same time he wanted to know exactly how long she had watched them struggle. Rosie looked up too.

“Gramma! Can you tie my shoes? Shadow doesn’t know how to tie shoes.”

Disgruntled at the child’s insistence on how he was doing it, Shadow watched Maria tie her shoes for her. It seemed simple enough. Besides, which way did it really matter how they were tied?

Shadow slipped his own shoes back on, and Rosie immediately went running out of the house to play. He could faintly hear Walter and Clara upstairs in the spare bedroom. That was the only reason he was on the couch, as the family had spent Saturday night with Maria as they always did.

Maria sent him a cheeky little smile. “Do I need to teach the Ultimate Life Form how to tie shoes?” she asked.

“No,” he said immediately, drawing himself straight. The reaction was almost a formal one, and it was especially odd with Maria. “I think I understand how it works.”

She nodded and pointed a thumb into the kitchen behind her. “Want some breakfast?”

“No thank you,” he replied, shaking his head. “I . . . I need to go,” he said reluctantly, shifting on his feet. “I need to see the Doctor.”

Understanding lit at once in Maria’s eyes, and it wasn’t a happy look. Her features screwed up some as she put her hands on her hips, saying, “That cousin of mine! I begged and begged him to tell you that I was alive, but he refused! He wanted your power all for himself, of course, and I didn’t know how to get a hold of you otherwise. When I heard you were alive again, I was lucky when Rouge came tracking me down and told me she could find you.”

Shadow paused, feeling something within him chill. He licked his lips before asking, “When I was alive . . . again?”

Maria’s brows cinched too. “Yes,” she said with a frown, “the first time I asked Ivo to tell you I was alive was the first time I saw you on TV when you stole that green Chaos Emerald.”

Hate boiled hot immediately. He fought to keep his voice level as he said tightly, “You mean when I was trying to destroy the world, your cousin knew you were alive, and DIDN’T tell me?”

There was hesitation. Shadow pressed his lips tightly, and Maria knelt in front of him, knees creaking with age. She put her hands on his shoulders. “Shadow,” she said carefully, “I know you’re angry, but please don’t do anything foolish.”

“Foolish?” Shadow all but snapped. His entire body was coiled with tension as he sought not to lose his temper in front of Maria. He took a deep breath, saying steadily, “The Doctor used me as a weapon and lied to me in order to get me to comply. I—I would have never tried to destroy the world had I known you were alive!”

“I know you wouldn’t have,” Maria told him, her hands squeezing his shoulders as both a gesture of comfort and restriction. “I don’t blame you, Shadow.”

“Ivo Robotnik is to blame,” he said hotly. He pulled himself out of her grip. “I’m going to have a CHAT with the dear Doctor.”

He turned to head towards the door, and Maria followed, saying, “Shadow, stop! Unless it really will be a civil conversation, I’m not letting you go!” Shadow ignored her, pushing open the front door, too furious to listen. “Shadow, violence is not the answer! Shadow—Shadow the Hedgehog, you stop RIGHT NOW!”

At the tone of voice he had never heard her use before, Shadow halted at the bottom of the porch steps. Rosie, who had been struggling with a hula hoop, let her toy drop to the ground as she gasped at Maria’s motherly tone.

“Is Shadow in trouble?”

Shadow’s ears flatted angrily before perking straight again. There was a beat of silence, and finally, Maria said, “Not yet, he’s not. Rosie, could you give us a minute to talk alone?”

“Okay . . .” Rosie nervously cast a glance over her shoulder at the dark hedgehog before disappearing into the house.

His hands clenched and relaxed twice before Maria crouched in his line of sight again. “What are you going to do, Shadow?”

“What does it matter?” he asked peevishly.

“Shadow.”

He crossed his arms and turned his face away, glowering to the side. “I told you,” he muttered, “I’m going to have a chat with the Doctor.”

“That doesn’t sound very truthful to me.”

“You want the truth?” he said back a touch too scathingly. His red eyes flashed at her. “I’m going to go give the Doctor a piece of my mind and wreck as much of his laboratory as possible for deceiving me.”

Maria’s eyes hardened a little. “Shadow, you know violence isn’t the answer,” she argued.

“It’s worked just fine for me so far.”

Her lips pressed and she said, “I just don’t want you to do anything you’ll regret.”

“Trust me,” Shadow muttered harshly, “I’m not going to regret it.”

“I know, and that’s what scares me! You can’t do this, Shadow.”

His temper snapped. “And what are you?” he snarled, “My mother?”

She seemed to recoil a little at that, and she rested back on her ankles submissively as she knelt in front of him. Shadow’s ears drooped backwards momentarily, and he jerked his chin away from her. An uncomfortable silence spread between them as Maria’s fingers twiddled nervously in her lap.

Finally, she murmured, “Shadow, I know I can’t make your decisions for you. I just . . . You know how I feel about violence.” A small pause lurked as large as an elephant before Maria whispered softly, “You’ve changed.”

This entire situation was awkward. Shadow could barely remember the times when he and Maria argued. They were always few and far between, and they made up quickly. This was . . . different. She spoke to him in a way she had never spoken to him before; he spoke to her in a way he had never dared. He hadn’t expected to be fighting with her so soon.

Avoiding her gaze, Shadow looked at the morning dew on the grass. “You’ve changed too,” was all he could muster up.

“Well,” she said, finding a small smile for him, “I guess we’ll just have to get to know each other again, right?”

Wanting to believe her, Shadow looked up and nodded. “Right.”

Her gaze softened, and then she heaved a resigned sigh. “Well, I know I can’t stop you,” she said, standing back up. She hesitated. “When will you be back?”

“Tonight,” he said immediately. Shyly, he looked away, admitting, “I want to see you.”

That really did make a smile bloom on her face. “My door is always open for you,” she told him. She looked at him seriously. “Be careful.”

He tried not to squirm under her gaze. He knew what she really meant, and by Chaos did he want to ignore her. Instead, he just nodded and beat a hasty escape, quickly igniting his skates and traveling to Eggman’s base in the Scrap Brain Zone.

She was letting him go and trusting him to do the right thing. He didn’t really know what the right thing was; only that it clearly didn’t involve violence, according to Maria. She probably expected him to sit and have a good spot of tea with the mad doctor, but Shadow inwardly scoffed at that. Talk out their feelings like nice mature adults? That was likely with the kind of temper tantrums Eggman could throw.

Shadow thought about it more as he skated, and the lull of familiar motion purged him of the most of his anger. By the time he drew into the Scrap Brain Zone, he had his game plan. As long as Eggman was civil, Shadow would be too. Otherwise, once provoked, he wouldn’t worry about how much of the doctor’s base he trashed. As he walked up to the giant steel fortress unharmed, Shadow considered, and then decided that he’d take back a Chaos Emerald as compensation.

Taking his leisurely time in finding Eggman, Shadow walked through the sizable base, looking down long grey corridors with glaring fluorescent lights. Taking a peek in each room as he went, Shadow found various closets full of broken robots, half-finished robots, storage, generators, and all sorts of other items needed for being an evil scientist.

He found Eggman in a lab, meticulously welding a small item. The automatic doors whizzed shut behind him. The round man didn’t look up as Shadow entered, saying cheekily, “Well, did you have fun on your little day trip?”

Leaning against a filing cabinet, Shadow took a deep breath to steady his displeasure. Crossing his arms, he replied coolly, “Of course I did, Doctor.”

As he spoke, Eggman’s welder turned off. His head popped up and he burst, “You mean you did?” and then, he hastily corrected himself, “O-of course, it had to be satisfying to see that Mr. Schmidt got what he deserved. After all these years.”

“Certainly,” Shadow said with velvety smoothness, “but I don’t take kindly to being lied to, Doctor.”

Eggman drew himself up to size and took the small item he had been working on to a spherical contraption to the side. “Well,” he said gruffly, “you didn’t ask for specifics. You just asked who shot Maria, and I told you. I didn’t lie.”

“A lie of omission is still a lie,” he said with a hard edge lurking under his silky tone. His hands clenched tightly on his elbows as he leered at Eggman from across the room. “You have an exceedingly bad habit of withholding information from me, Doctor, and the consequences could be ugly.”

“Of course I’m not lying to you, Shadow,” Eggman said again, tinkering here and there with his newest machine. Finally, he turned and looked at Shadow fully, his expression collected behind blue shades. “We both agreed:  information for information. Or, as with your lack of information, at least some hard labor to earn the knowledge I have.”

“Ah, but you misunderstand me, Doctor,” Shadow crooned. He stood from his idle slouch and approached Eggman with a glint in his eye. His lip curled as he asked, “How long did you think you could hide her from me?” He was pleased to see Eggman blanching, his mouth already opening to cut him off. He didn’t let him.

“Maria asked you herself for you to pass on the message that she was alive and wanted to see me,” Shadow snarled angrily. “You withheld this from me. So when were you going to tell me she was alive? When I finished working off my supposed debt to you? When you succeeded in creating your Eggman Empire?” He couldn’t contain a scoff at that. Crimson eyes glinted, and he growled, “Or perhaps you would have told me when I nearly annihilated the planet!”

“O-Of course not, Shadow!” Eggman stuttered, backing away a couple of steps as Shadow advanced with a look that could kill it was so sharp. “Y-Your mental state was so fragile, I was afraid—”

“My mental state?” Shadow interrupted. He gave one flat laugh and cut, “No, Doctor, I highly doubt you were ever going to tell me Maria was alive. No, you were going to allow me to keep believing she was dead in order to keep me in line as your own personal weapon.” His hands trembled with the urge to destroy something, but he held himself in check for Maria, instead expressing himself with the words, “I am NOT happy.” That didn’t sound very threatening. Maybe he should have worded that differently.

“I never said she was dead!” Eggman said almost shrilly in his defense. He pointed his finger at Shadow, saying, “I never said to you that Maria was dead. I did mention she was shot, but you were the one to assume that she was dead!”

“And you never once attempted to correct me even though you knew she was alive!”

Shadow clenched his fists and took a deep breath, striving to control his temper. Clearly this effort was visible because Eggman harrumphed, “You did see her, didn’t you? That’s got to be the only reason my base hasn’t been leveled yet . . . Then what do you want? Why are you here?”

His ears twitched. “To tell you that I am through working for you, and I’m here for a Chaos Emerald.”

“And you think I’m just going to hand that over to you?” Eggman asked hotly.

Shadow’s lip curled, and he crooned, “You will if you don’t want me to level your base and take it anyways. I’m offering you a chance to cut your losses, Doctor, before I cut them for you.”

Eggman’s mouth pressed. His thumb roved restlessly on a pant leg, as if itching to press a button and sic some robots on him before he grunted, “Fine,” and began to walk off. Shadow followed him out of the laboratory and deeper into the base where Eggman led him to a series of vaults. He chose one and entered a pin, revealing the white Chaos Emerald. Begrudgingly, he handed it to Shadow. “Satisfied?”

The edge of Shadow’s lip quirked up. He gave him a slight, mocking bow. “Thank you, Doctor. I expect this won’t be the last I see of you.”

Eggman grumbled indistinctly. Shadow smirked and immediately let the Chaos power warming his palm flood into his system. Utilizing a Chaos Control, Shadow teleported all the way back to Central City, saving hours of travel. Feeling the nearly addictive rush of Chaos energies, Shadow released a gratifying sigh. Eggman had three Chaos Emeralds—he should have taken another. Instead, choosing to stick with his original plan, Shadow sadly lamented the Chaos Emerald he held before traveling to the nearest shop to get it wrapped. Then, he trekked deeper into the city to Club Rouge.

Shadow hesitated at the door to the club. What if she was working? The back of his neck prickled. He didn’t fancy walking up to G.U.N.’s headquarters to find her. They didn’t exactly have the fondest of history. What was he even going to say? He hadn’t really thought about it much. Maybe he was hoping an awkward “I’m sorry” would be enough and Rouge would let him off the hook. He certainly had enough to bribe his way into her good graces, but that didn’t feel proper.

He stood for some time contemplating in front of her club’s door and finally decided he might as well see if she was there. He rapped on the door and waited. When no answer was forthcoming, Shadow wondered if she had even heard him. It seemed to be a sizable club. He knocked again and received no answer, but just for the record that he had really tried, knocked one more time.

The door yanked open angrily. “Clearly the club is—”

The word “closed” died on her lips as she regarded Shadow with a hint of suspicion. Teal eyes darted to the small package he held before back to his face. He had never seen her in anything other than her cat suit, so seeing her in silky purple pajamas was jarring. She crossed her arms—which to Shadow, put herself on display far more than necessary—and said simply, “Shadow.”

His ears dipped back a little at her haughty tone, but he knew he deserved it. Avoiding her gaze, he asked, “Can I come in?”

She seemed to debate this. After a moment, she stepped aside to let him inside and shut the door behind him. The club was dim, but the lights above the bar had been turned on. Rouge walked up to it and sat down on a stool, so Shadow followed suit. He sat the package down on the bar, making her attention slip to it briefly before she hiked her chin up at him. “So?”

His hands held the edge of the stool, and he pressed his lips. Looking down at his lap, he admitted, “I . . . wanted to apologize.”

“Thought so,” she said with a slight purr. “For what?”

It was clear what, but Shadow allowed her to milk his apology for all it was worth. “I’m sorry for not believing you,” he started, trying to remember to tick off all the boxes. “For attacking you. For the things I said. I was wrong. I should have believed you.”

“And for being a prick.”

His lips thinned in annoyance, but allowed, “And for being a prick.” He leaned his arms against the bar, looking down at its shiny surface. He heaved a small sigh and said, “I’m sorry. I should have trusted you.”

“Funny how you can actually trust me to tell the truth, isn’t it?” she said, but she was smiling at him now. “Apology accepted. So how are you now? You must be doing pretty good if you can apologize without grinding your teeth flat.”

He spared her a roll of his eyes at her teasing, but his lips twitched against a smile. “I owe you,” he said softly, feeling warmth in his chest when he thought about Maria. He pushed the package her way.

“I knew this was for me,” Rouge said with a flash of her teeth, snatching up the box. “You better be glad you didn’t lead with this. I can’t be bought, you know.”

As she ripped the paper off, something close to a wry smile made him shake his head. “I’m sure even you have a price,” he said, but not maliciously.

Rouge shot him a look as she opened up the box, but the second she lifted the lid, she gasped, “Whoa, BABY!” and snatched the gem out of the box. She ogled the white Chaos Emerald with awe, cupping it with both hands. She shot him another suspicious glance, asking, “You’re really just giving this to me?” She was putting her body between him and the emerald already, as if she expected him to yank it away like some kind of cruel joke.

Instead, Shadow just nodded and said, “It’s yours.”

“Oh Shadow, you shouldn’t have!”

Shadow flinched, nearly knocked off his bar stool when Rouge suddenly flung her arms around him. He barely managed to jerk his head down enough so Rouge didn’t cut her arms on his spines, which left his face buried uncomfortably in her shoulder. He had to swat at her to get her to let go, and she almost immediately returned to preening over the beauty of her white Chaos Emerald.

“You sure know how to flatter a girl,” Rouge said to him, turning over the gem in her hand. “You certainly bring out the big guns for apologies, don’t you?”

Satisfied that the day had gone exactly how he had planned, Shadow stood from the barstool. “Sure,” he said evasively. “You take care of that.”

“What?” She whirled around on the barstool, tearing her eyes away from the jewel for just a moment more to look at him. “You’re leaving already?”

“Yes,” he said with a nod in her direction. “I . . . I have a place to return to.”

Rouge’s gaze softened marginally. She gave him a small, close-mouthed smile as she teased, “You hurry back to your Maria. Who knows? Maybe I’ll stop by for a visit one day. She seemed nice.”

Shadow nodded, saying, “Of course. Another time, Rouge.”

She was nearly uninterested in goodbyes now, standing from the bar stool with her gift shining in her hands. “Sure thing, Shadow,” she said, “I’ll keep this baby safe,” and chuckled to herself, as if he had requested her to watch over the emerald.

Shadow just shook his head to himself as he left the dim club, squinting in the suddenly bright afternoon sun of the day. His heart lightened as he realized he had the entire afternoon to spend with Maria. Speeding off in the streets, Shadow tried to squish the unease at trying to relearn who his best friend was. She was still the same Maria, even if she was a little older and a little wiser. Finding the Melrose subdivision and the little yellow house Shadow was already beginning to associate as home, Shadow’s brows rose at a wisp of smoke coming from the backyard.

He stopped at the door, wondering whether he should knock or just walk in. He could hear voices on the inside, and it stuck him as too many different voices to just be the family. Hesitantly, he knocked, and a hush spilled through the inside. Shadow’s eyes narrowed in suspicion.

The door opened. Just a crack. Maria peeked through with a wide grin and an impish twinkle in her eyes. He shrank just so. “Maria,” he asked hesitantly, “what’s going on?”

She jumped back and flung open the door, shouting, “SURPRISE!” with a choir of voices behind her. Shadow’s feet welded to the floor as he counted not only Rosie, Walter, and Clara, but also Amy, Tails, and SONIC.

“Welcome back from the dead, buddy!” Sonic hollered with a grin. “And to the reunion of friends! We’re grilling out!”

Walter clicked the tongs in his hand to punctuate his statement, and before Shadow could gather his bearings, Amy was practically on top of him, grabbing his hands. “Oh Shadow, I’m just so happy for you!” she said, sincerely close to tears. “You and Maria are finally back together! Oh, she even baked a cake for you, come in!”

She dragged him into the house that was suddenly too full for Shadow’s taste. Rosie grabbed his opposite hand, bouncing up and down with her hair done up in pigtails. “We’re having a party for you!” she said excitedly.

Shadow looked helplessly over his shoulder for Maria, and she was pressing her lips, trying her best not to laugh at his floundering. She said, “I didn’t realize you had so many friends, Shadow!”

It was on the tip of his tongue to deny them when Tails suddenly piped up, “I can’t believe you’ve never had a surprise party!”

“Yeah, shame,” Sonic said with a grin. Shadow stared at him, disconcerted to see the blue hero in Maria’s living room. “We figured a surprise party was the perfect way to celebrate! You need some more parties in your life, buddy.”

Rosie came in front of Shadow again, saying, “Wanna go play?” and at the same time, Shadow’s sharp quills brushed a balloon behind him. It popped thunderously behind him, and the skittish hedgehog nearly jumped out of his skin.

Laughter filled the house. Shadow flushed. Sonic was doubled up, nearly unable to control his laughter, but Maria took the distraction to move closer to Shadow, leaning down to ask, “Are you all right?”

Seeing the concern in her eyes, he didn’t want to ruin the surprise party—she had made a cake for him!—and instead unglued his mouth to say immediately, “I’m fine.” It was a lie, and Maria knew it.

Maria smiled at their company, saying, “How about we all head outside? There will be more room in the backyard.”

Walter’s eyes widened. “Oh! The hot dogs!” and he dashed through the kitchen to the outside.

Rosie whirled around and punched Sonic’s stomach. “Race you!”

She bolted immediately with Sonic on her heels, and Shadow somehow doubted Sonic would lose, even if she was a child. Tails followed Sonic, and Amy helped Clara along, the girls chatting excitedly about the not-yet-born George.

Shadow was a little impressed with Maria’s maneuver to get everyone out of the house. She crouched in front of him, asking, “Are you really all right?”

He jerked a shoulder noncommittally, saying, “A little overwhelmed.”

A soft smile touched her features. “I could tell,” she told him. “Your friends came by to see you earlier, and since you were gone, we thought a surprise party would be fun.”

“They’re not my friends,” he said automatically, but there wasn’t real malice in his voice.

Surprise flooded Maria’s face. “They’re not?” she said. “They certainly acted like it. They were so excited to throw together the party.”

He supposed they would be excited. Unable to articulate quite why he didn’t want to view them as friends or why things were so awkward in the first place, Shadow just pressed his lips together. When he avoided her gaze, Maria asked gently, “Shadow, are you really all right? If you don’t want to be here, we can go somewhere else.”

He almost took her up on the offer. Somewhere quieter, alone where they could talk and he wouldn’t have to suffer a party. Instead, he happened to glance towards the back windows of the kitchen to see Rosie running outside. She stopped at the window, pressed her face against the glass and stuck out her tongue at him. She giggled as she ran off. Sonic was chasing her, and he stopped at the window to make a face at Shadow too before resuming pursuit.

He could smell the hot dogs cooking. And, Maria had made him a cake. Suddenly filled with the urge not to disappoint people, Shadow finally hedged, “I . . . It’s fine.” To make his statement seem more genuine, he took her hand to tug her back to her feet. Inwardly, he steeled himself for battle, saying, “Let’s join them.”

Maria smiled widely, saying, “All right.” She paused. “Also, you had the best facial reaction to the surprise!”

Shadow flushed a little at her teasing, and they headed outside to join the festivities. The greeting they gathered alone was almost enough to make Shadow think he could endure the party. Shadow kept himself at a distance from the others as Sonic and Tails more than happily played with Rosie. Dinner was nearly ready when they suddenly realized they had forgotten Rouge, so Sonic sped off to pick her up. He returned several minutes later with a very disgruntled Rogue in sweats and a presentable tank top who proclaimed, “Next time when a lady says she has her own transportation, you listen to her!”

Surprisingly, the party became a little more bearable with Rogue around. She sat next to him as the conversation filtered around them, content not to try and drag him into conversation. Sonic more than filled the silences with his big mouth, telling stories of defeating Eggman, along with the stories of how he and Shadow first met. Shadow was so uncomfortable at Sonic’s retelling of him trying to destroy the world that Rouge kicked the blue blur from under the table and Maria swiftly and skillfully managed to steer the conversation in another direction.

After dinner, Walter ended up pulling out a game called cornhole for them to play, and both he and Rosie ended up being highly competitive. Due to Rosie’s pleading, Shadow stood for one game before shrinking to the sidelines with the highly pregnant Clara. He and Rosie lost to Maria and Walter.

And then finally, FINALLY as the sun was setting, Clara and Walter both said they needed to be getting home. School started tomorrow for Rosie, who whined and whined about wanting to stay a little bit longer. With another hug for Shadow, in which he taught her the proper way to hug him so she wouldn’t hurt herself, the small family left. It also signaled the end of the party, and Sonic and co. all left too, Rouge huffily telling Sonic that she would fly home.

As the last of them cleared out, Maria began cleaning up leftover cups and loading the dishwasher. She smiled at Shadow in the sudden quiet of the house. “There. That wasn’t so bad, now was it?”

He was drained and tired, but it hadn’t been . . . awful. “I guess not,” he said evasively. He picked up some dishes and brought them over to her. “I don’t relish doing it again anytime soon, though.” Somehow he figured he’d be seeing them a lot more than he wanted to.

Maria laughed then, saying, “Well then, I doubt you’ll want to be here next weekend. Clara’s having her baby shower and this house is going to be filled with strange women.”

He cast a bemused glance her way and said, “I’ll be sure to avoid the house that day.”

Chuckling, Maria turned the dishwasher on and wiped down the counters. “I want to do something with you,” she told him.

Interest piqued, Shadow lifted his brows. “What?”

She just ginned and shook her head, saying, “Hold on, let me put on something more comfortable.”

She hurried upstairs with a spring in her step, and Shadow waited downstairs. Trying to be helpful, he closed the blinds against the night, and Maria returned in her pajamas. She took his hand, saying, “Come on.” They headed out to the fenced in backyard, and before Shadow could ask what they were doing there, Maria sat and pulling him down with her. “Stargazing!” she said cheerfully, and she flopped on her back, blond and grey hair sprawling in the grass.

Amused at her, Shadow lay on his back and looked up at the night sky with her. It was quiet except for the crickets, and he stared up at the starry sky, like glitter smeared over black.

He heard Maria give a soft laugh. “I’ve always wanted to do this with you,” she admitted quietly. “It’s different looking up at the sky instead of down, isn’t it?”

Shadow glanced over to her. A faint smile was pulling her lips, but her eyes were far away. “I used to think Earth looked pretty small,” she said to him. “I knew factually that it wasn’t, but for the longest, I didn’t realize it would be . . . THIS vast. I always feel like a speck on the face of this planet when I look up at the stars. Sometimes it’s nice to put into perspective how small we really are.”

His eyes lidded briefly. Turning to look up at the endless sky, the moon gleaming half full, Shadow released a breath and closed his eyes. Maria’s hand laced in his, and for a while, they lied in companionable silence stargazing.

She was right. It was very different looking up at the sky instead of down on it. Everything about their lives was very different from what Shadow remembered. Sometimes, he found himself trying to pretend everything was still the same—Maria was still the same Maria, she was young and full of life, and they were still best friends. But they didn’t live on the ARK anymore. She had a job. A family. A life she had lived without him.

Shadow’s heart sunk like a rock. His whole life was changing too fast for him to catch up to it. Sonic and his friends were trying to begin a friendly relationship with him. There was a toddler who wanted to play with him and looked up to him. He was being adopted into a family that consisted of more than just Maria and Dr. Robotnik. He was still struggling with the idea of a more domestic life.

But, as he closed his eyes, feeling the familiarity of having Maria’s hand in his, he could almost pretend nothing had changed at all. They might be changed, and the circumstances might be different, but they were still friends. He took solace in this thought and squeezed her hand, for once looking forward to what the future may hold.

After a moment, Maria’s hand squeezed back.


	4. Ordinary Day

**“If you gave me a chance I would take it**  
**It's a shot in the dark but I'll make it  
** **Know with all of your heart, you can't shake me**  
**When I am with you, there's no place I'd rather be”**

**Rather Be __ Clean Bandit**

The next morning, Shadow woke before Maria. It was still early, and the house seemed oddly quiet now that the rest of the family was back in their own home. Rosie was starting school today, and had during the previous evening, managed to rope Shadow into agreeing to see her after school. She wanted to tell him all about her first day because she was sure it was going to be perfect.

Laying on his stomach in the spare bedroom, Shadow cracked open his eyes. This room was just as loud as Maria’s living room, decorated in the warm color spectrum—which honestly ought to be renamed the hot color spectrum:  the colors were so garish against the morning that it pained Shadow’s eyes.

A large rug covered most of the wooden floor, black with colored rings all over it. The bedspread was white and speckled with red carnations, the curtains were sunshine yellow, and there were multiple dashes of orange, red, and yellow decorations on the walls. It made for an overall too-bright room that made Shadow heave a sigh, bury his face in his pillow, and finally get up if just to escape the ostentatious room.

He went to the bathroom across the hall. This was nautical themed, so it was actually the most decent room of the house in mostly blues. Shadow washed out his mouth, inspected his fur, decided he passed inspection and headed downstairs.

Since it was so early, he warmed up and stretched and went for a morning run. He didn’t want to disturb Maria’s sleep as the sun began to rise, and so he killed time with a refreshing run. As he considered the past few days, he realized this was probably the happiest he had been in . . . a long time. That was the word he was looking for:  happy. He was happy.

His lips twisted up wryly at the thought of the emotion he thought he wasn’t ever going to feel again. As he sped along around the city, wind whipping pleasantly around him, he thought about the kinds of things people on Earth did. He really didn’t know Earth culture very well, but he imagined Maria would take him to a drive-in movie, since it seemed to be a popular past time. Sports games were a likely idea, if Maria had a team she followed. Perhaps a concert? Did people still have outdoor picnics on blankets, or was that something old?

As the sun began to rise higher, Shadow diverted his path back to the house and made it home in record time. His heart warmed with an uncharacteristic fuzzy feeling—home. He liked the sound of that. Pushing open the door, Shadow blinked in surprise at Maria, fully dressed and eating a bowl of cereal at her kitchen table. A lab coat was draped over the back of her chair.

She waved and covered her mouth, saying, “Good morning, Shadow!” around a mouthful.

Again, his heart fluttered with his good mood. “Good morning, Maria,” he replied. Shutting the door behind him, he frowned at her, asking, “Where are you going?”

“I have to go to work,” she told him, huffing a little as she tucked a stray hair out of her face. It was the only strand that wasn’t quite locked into her bun. “I have to pay for the bills somehow, don’t I?”

Shadow’s chipper mood deflated immediately. For some reason, he had hoped he would have the whole day to catch up with her. Of course, now that she had mentioned work, it made perfect sense and he felt ridiculous for thinking otherwise. “Oh,” he said softly instead, trying to hide his disappointment and find something to say to fill the silence.

Hesitating and sensing what he wanted, Maria stood collecting the empty bowl. She said, “Do you want to come with me?”

“Yes,” Shadow replied a little faster than he had meant to.

Maria just smiled though, warning him, “It’ll probably be a little boring for you, you know? Lots of research, lab work, technical reports, and—” she waggled her fingers threateningly, “SCIENCE stuff.”

“I’m used to it,” he said as she clunked her bowl and spoon in the sink, thinking of his time on the ARK. At least this time he’d actually see science that wasn’t experimenting on him. It should be a little interesting. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that he’d do anything to spend some time with her. Still, because of the look in her eyes, he somehow thought that she had already figured out what the burr in his quills was.

“All right,” Maria said with a tease. “No complaining once we get there!” She grabbed her keys off the table and draped her lab coat over her arm. “You riding or running?”

“I’ll run,” he said, thinking he’d like to stretch his legs a little more before beginning Maria’s day with her. He followed her small black car that had a cracked tail light all the way to a tall, imposing building. She parked in the back, and Shadow followed her inside, suddenly wondering if he was even qualified to be in the building.

Their steps echoed on the sleek floor, and Shadow gathered the impression that the building was extremely sterile. The white walls, punctuated by shining surfaces and cutting, geometric shapes put him back in mind of the ARK, but while the environment hadn’t changed, the atmosphere had.

Maria introduced him to all sorts of people. As they passed people in the halls or in the elevator, they all were eager to meet him. “I’ve never actually met a Mobian before,” they would say, or, “Oh, so YOU’RE Maria’s friend! I’ve heard all about you.” They said, “Dr. Gerald Robotnik’s Ultimate Life Form. It’s an honor,” and would shake his hand. They gawked, “A miracle of science you are! Are you helping Maria with her work today?” All the scientists in the building had heard of him, and they were all eager to meet him, as if he were a celebrity. The amount of attention was disconcerting.

Still, for how eagerly they met him, and for how many questions Shadow could see burning behind their eyes, they didn’t press. He steeled himself for interrogations, but they didn’t ask, even though they wanted to—it didn’t occur to Shadow until the fourth or fifth person that they treated him as an equal here and respected his privacy.

As Maria used her I.D. scanner to open up a door, she led them in a dark room. She turned the lights on, saying, “We’re here,” and revealed a rather large laboratory.

Shadow felt his tense shoulders relax a little now that they were alone. He glanced back over his shoulder at the automatic door whizzing shut. “Good,” he said, fazed. Since when did so many people want to meet him? Shaking off his nervousness, he blinked around at the wide room. “Is this your lab?”

The smooth floor had plenty of open space which led up to a neat desk. Behind the desk were numerous filing cabinets decorated with tacky fake bouquets, and on the side wall, several bookshelves full of thick books, and one dedicated to nothing but spiral notebooks with little papers sticking out here and there with sticky notes galore. The office side opened up into a proper laboratory with shiny countertops and vial racks and sophisticated machinery. There were three doors, all with keypad locks.

“One of the perks of being a Robotnik, I think,” Maria said with a smile, looking very professional in her lab coat. “That, and being the lead researcher of Chaos Theory.”

“You are?” Shadow asked, pride filling his chest. Of course she would be, wouldn’t she? Her brains wouldn’t go to waste.

“Yep,” she said, taking a moment at her desk to re-put a bobby pin into her hair to hold back the stray strands. “I’ve done things as big as negating the radiation in X-Rays, improving Chaos Drives, and things as small as making Chao karate and racing more popular because of the Chaos Drives.”

Shadow stood, looking around the immaculately clean laboratory. “You worked with Chaos Drives too?” he asked, thinking about Gerald.

“Of course,” she said as she opened up one of the filing cabinets, sifting through manila envelopes quickly. “It was the logical place to start, building on Grandpa’s work. I’ve had help obviously with the findings of other scientists, but if you look things up, most of it should be accounted to me. I simply made Chaos Drives more stable and conductive. They’re far more versatile than Grandpa’s were, and they power things ranging from machinery all the way to Chao.”

The automatic door to her lab whizzed open, and Shadow glanced over his shoulder to see a man walk in. His eyes grazed Shadow with interest, but he just lifted several manila envelopes, saying, “Dr. Robotnik, your colleagues’ data.” Three names were stamped on the three folders.

“Oh, thank you! Shadow, could you grab those for me?”

He walked up to the man, taking the folders, and the scientist hovered for a moment, looking curiously at Shadow, but instead chose not to say anything. He just nodded towards Shadow and backed out of the room.

Trying to shake off his unease, knowing he wasn’t going to be experimented on in this day and age with Maria around, Shadow returned to her desk and laid the folders down. Maria sat down in her chair, opening up the folders she had pulled out along with one of the ones she had been given. Shadow looked through the room again.

“What’s behind the doors?” he asked.

Maria looked up and regarded the doors he asked about. “Well, one is a controlled environment for my more dangerous experiments. The other is mostly storage, but with the kind of chemicals and such I use, you can’t leave it around unlocked.”

Shadow cast his glance from the doors on the back wall and instead looked to the steel grey doors on the far wall. “What about that one?”

She clicked nervously on her pen in thought as she regarded the papers in front of her, but she spared him a little grin, saying, “If I told you that, I’d have to kill you.”

Shadow snorted at that as she went back to her work, but he couldn’t help but notice that she didn’t answer him. Unused to her keeping any sort of secrets from him, he had to remind himself that things were different now. Her work was very official, and he knew Gerald used to have top secret works too. He supposed it was no different now.

He hesitated a moment, wondering if he should give her some quiet for her work, but a question buzzed in the back of his mind. Shifting on his feet, he eventually asked, “Maria, why did that man earlier ask me if I was helping you with your lab work?” Surely they didn’t think he was a scientist in any sort of regard. He wondered if they actually thought he would subjugate himself to experimentation again.

Then again, if Maria asked, he was sure he’d do anything for her.

“Oh,” and she waved her hand casually, “you know scientists. We’ve got to know everything, you know?”

Shadow frowned. “I don’t understand.”

Maria paused and looked up at him. She seemed to consider her answer, and responded, “Well, you know that Grandpa brought you to life, supposedly through the power of science. However, for everything we know about you from his notes and documentation, we don’t actually KNOW how he brought you to life.”

His brows rose. They didn’t know? He opened his mouth, shut it, frowned, and asked, “But . . . If that was the most important part, why wouldn’t Gerald write it down?”

“Oh, we’re sure he wrote it down,” Maria said with a knowing look, lifting her eyebrows. “See, we think when he heard about G.U.N. raiding the ARK that he deleted all his evidence for when he brought you to life. There are a few pockets of missing records in December of 1960—just around that week when your birth date is supposed to be. All of the information is gone, all the way down to a missing page in his diary.” Her lips pressed suddenly, giving Shadow the impression that she was annoyed. “Grandpa made very sure that no one else could have that information.”

Not even her. The words were left unsaid though, and Shadow shifted, his quills flexing. He crossed his arms. “So no one knows anything about how the Professor actually brought me to life,” he repeated. “That’s why they thought I was helping you. They think you’re going to try to find the secret to . . . life.”

He skirted around the word “immortality” since he himself still didn’t like the idea of it and what that meant for him. He wouldn’t think about it until absolutely necessary.

Maria seemed to give a sad laugh then, her slight shoulders slumping. “Honestly, Shadow, unless it was something short of divine intervention, I’m beginning to believe it was impossible for Grandfather to create life out of nothing.” Sensing weight behind her sentence, Shadow looked fully at her, but she hid her eyes from him by looking down on her paper, clicking at her pen. “Besides,” she said, “it’s probably better this way. You know G.U.N. would have been the first to get their hands on that kind of information, and quite honestly, I think I sleep better knowing they don’t know.”

A wry smirk touched Shadow’s features. “Understandable,” he agreed, and conversation tapered off again as Maria focused on her work.

However, starting from there, Shadow found himself stuck in a very boring day. Maria hadn’t been kidding when she told him that it would be dull and full of science he didn’t understand. He had nothing to do as she read up on reports and compared data except to ask her every now and then how it looked. When she joined her coworkers in the main lab, Shadow was stuck on the other side of the glass—out of a sterile environment—watching in the hallway as they bent over their microscopes, periodically teasing one another as they went through a quiet day.

He sat at lunch with Maria as she ate some sort of microwave meal, rubbing at the lines in her forehead. They were joined by her coworkers, and while Shadow was annoyed that they were butting in on his time with Maria, it was nice to see this little bit of Maria’s life and those with whom she associated with.

Still, after a couple more hours of watching Maria look at her science instruments, write in her notebook, look again, and write more when Shadow felt there was no real discernible difference, he was quite ready to go. Thankful for the excuse that he had to go see Rosie to see how her first day of school went, Shadow apologized to Maria and excused himself. Maria ended up being thankful he would have something to do because according to her, the next couple hours before the end of her shift would be full of nothing but paperwork.

It took a bit of running back and forth to find the Hawthorn Grove subdivision, and Shadow placed it at roughly half an hour from Maria’s house by car. Their house was brick on the front with tan paneling on the side, their grass cut short and neat. It was only one story though compared to Maria’s two story home. A silver Audi was parked in the driveway. Shadow walked up to the red door and knocked politely. When no one came, he wondered if he needed to actually ring the doorbell, but the door suddenly swung open.

Walter smiled at the sight of him and pushed his glasses up on his nose. “Oh, Shadow! Good to see you, come in,” and he opened the door wide for the hedgehog. Their living room was far better decorated than Maria’s.

Shadow inclined his head towards the man, saying, “Hello Walter.”

“Rosie will sure be happy to see you,” Walter said as he crossed the living room to the dining room table where he had a stack of papers he was grading. He leaned on his chair, frowning as he said, “I don’t think she had a very good day. She keeps saying it was fine and she liked her teacher, but she won’t talk to me.” He gave a wry smile. “I suppose she’ll talk to her mom tonight, but I bet she’ll perk right up when you walk in.” He pointed down the hall, saying, “Her room’s the one with the closed door.”

“Thank you,” Shadow said to him, and the man sat back down to grade papers. Shadow briefly wondered what age group he taught before heading down the hallway to the first door on the left. He knocked, calling, “Rosie?” and pushing the door open carefully, just in case she didn’t want him to come in.

She was on the floor, making a toy horse smack into a plastic Barbie. However, when he poked his head in her room, she hopped to her feet immediately. “Shadow! You came!”

Rosie immediately darted across the room and launched herself into his arms. Shadow caught her reflexively, feeling her arms wrap safely around his waist and below all of his spines. She buried her face briefly into his chest before grabbing his hand and pulling him into the room. “This is my room,” she said to him. “Do you like it?”

He looked around and decided immediately that there was too much blue. The walls were painted cerulean blue and had sparkly stickers on them. There was a poster of Uhura from Star Trek along with the picture of Einstein with his tongue sticking out. Her bedspread was a bright blue, pink and purple nebula set and had a fat hippopotamus plush sitting on it. The dresser was white with blue knobs and had an assortment of knickknacks—such as a perpetual motion balance mobile, a silver dolphin ceaselessly hopping through a hoop.

Her window was open, allowing a breeze to flutter the pink curtains. Two plants grew in empty liter bottles, one doing significantly better than the other. Shoes were stuffed under the bed. Several toys were strewn along with an animal coloring book that had been smeared fitfully with crayons. All in all, it was an oddity of a room, splashes of natural girlish delight here and there with a distinctly scientific theme.

Realizing she was waiting on his answer, he immediately said, “I like it,” without thinking. Rosie smiled then and raced across the room, grabbing the hippo that was almost as fat and large as she was.

“This is Pepe,” she told him. “He’s a hippopotamus. Hippos are my favorite animal.”

Shadow lifted a brow at her. Hippos? “Why?” he asked.

“Well,” she said thoughtfully, “they’re big and fat, they fart, and they eat people.”

She said it all so seriously that Shadow briefly fought down a laugh. Instead, fighting the urge to snicker, Shadow arched a brow and repeated, “You like that they eat people?”

Rosie seemed to consider this. “I like that they CAN eat people,” she finally said with a firm nod of her head, “not that they DO eat people. I’d hate to get eaten by a hippo.” Then she frowned, wrinkling her little nose up the way Maria did. “I don’t even know why they eat people. They’re supposed to eat grass.” She held up Pepe again. “I named him Pepe because there was a real hippo named Pepe. He got out once and ate someone. They found his arm and leg in Pepe’s belly. They also found a tire in him.”

If possible, Shadow’s brows lifted higher. “Pepe ate a tire?” he echoed incredulously.

“Yup!” Rosie grinned broadly. “Isn’t that cool?”

If a hippo could swallow a tire, it could certainly swallow Shadow. And by extension, Rosie. Instead, Shadow just said what he was expected to say. “Really cool.”

“Hippos are super cool,” Rosie reiterated for him. “Apparently their closest relatives are dolphins and whales, and that’s cool. I think they have to be closer to whales since they’re so fat. I want a hippo one day. I think I’d call her Matilda.”

Shadow crossed his arms restlessly. “And what happens when your hippo tries to eat YOU?” he challenged her.

“Oh, Matilda wouldn’t eat me,” Rosie told him in no uncertain terms. She placed the hippo plush on her bed, saying, “Matilda would like me, so she wouldn’t want to eat me.”

Rosie sat back down on the floor, so Shadow sat down across from her. She shoved aside the Barbie and plastic horse though for the coloring book. Ignoring the page she had mutilated with colors smeared so hard the crayon color flecked, she turned the page to reveal a horse that had been quite neatly colored. On the adjacent page was a lion with a lion tamer.

“Want to color with me?” she asked. She didn’t wait for his answer, but instead picked up a blue crayon from the pile. “You can color his face. I want his clothes to be blue.”

Absently, Shadow grabbed a crayon while his nose turned up, blue immediately making him think of Sonic. “You must like blue a lot,” he observed, judging by the color of her walls.

“Yup! It’s my favorite color!” His scowl must have shown on his face, because she frowned too, saying, “You don’t like blue?”

His mind drifted from Sonic to the color of Maria’s eyes. His glower faded, and he pressed his lips together, grudgingly admitting, “It’s fine.”

“Then what’s your favorite color?”

“I don’t know.” He’d never been asked before.

Rosie pursed her lips up at him, saying, “You don’t know? Think about it! What is it?”

Looking down in annoyance at how bossy she was, Shadow twirled his crayon, which incidentally was also a different shade of blue. As he thought about it, he realized blue in itself was actually a comforting color. It reminded him of Maria since her eyes were blue and she had worn a lot of blue on the ARK—he thought that might have been because her favorite color was blue too. It also reminded him of looking down on Earth.

Finally, he muttered, “I think it’s blue.”

Rosie giggled with delight at that, and she intently bowed over the picture, beginning to color the lion tamer’s costume. Her head nearly obscured the picture from Shadow’s eyes, but he just used his blue to color the man’s skin. They finished a very sad looking lion tamer, drenched in multiple different shades of teal, turquoise, and periwinkle.

Eventually Shadow had to ask, “So you wanted me here to talk about school. How was it?”

She didn’t answer for a moment, and she considered the crayons around her before picking up red. “It was fine,” she finally said in a tone of voice that said that it wasn’t fine. “I like my teacher. She seems nice and fun.”

Rosie didn’t offer up anything more, though. Instead, she began roughly coloring the lion red. Sensing something was wrong and feeling awkward about the silence, Shadow ventured, “Did you make some friends?”

She kept her head down. After a moment more, she muttered, “No,” and colored the lion even more vigorously.

Ah. So there was the problem. Shadow hesitated, wondering how to combat this issue. He wished Clara were here. He could have easily let her mother take care of things. He considered letting Walter handle it, but Rosie wasn’t opening up to her dad about things. He cleared his throat nervously, asking, “Did . . . you not like anyone?”

Her face was down, but Shadow could still see it scrunching up. “They didn’t like me,” she said bitterly, and Shadow heard the threat of tears in her voice. Chaos help him, if she cried, he wouldn’t know how to handle her.

“Um,” he began awkwardly, quills flexing, “what happened?”

She ground the crayon against the page, beginning to really ruin the picture they had started on. “Mama told me I just had to talk to people to make friends. I talked but no one wanted to talk to me. They thought I was weird. So I stopped talking to them.”

Frantically, Shadow sought some way to comfort her. At this rate, she was actually going to start crying, and if she did that, he’d really be out of his depth. “I’m—sure you’ll find a friend,” he stumbled on. “There’s a friend out there for you.”

She sniffled, “You think so?”

Shadow nodded even though she didn’t see it. “I’m your friend, aren’t I?”

“Yeah . . .”

He plowed ahead even though he wasn’t sure if it was working or not. She was still sniffing. “Well,” he tried again, “you’ll find a friend. A best friend. No one liked me on the ARK, but Maria was my friend.”

Finally, Rosie looked up at him. Her eyes were a little red looking, and she asked, “People didn’t like you either?”

He shook his head adamantly. “No, they didn’t,” he said. Experimentation, prejudice against Mobians, treating as an object instead of a sentient being—yeah, they didn’t like him. Even when he was bowing to their uses as a weapon, they still didn’t like him. “But I had Maria, and she was my best friend. You’ll find a best friend too.”

Rosie sniffled one more time and rubbed under her nose. But she smiled, saying, “Okay. I like the sound of that. A best friend. I’ll try talking to people again.”

Shadow nodded mutely, wondering if that was really all he had to say to lift her spirits. Rosie looked down on the coloring page she had ruined, frowned, and quickly flipped it shut. Then, she hopped to her feet, saying, “Come on! Let’s go jump on the trampoline!”

She grabbed his hand and dragged him outside. Shadow let her, somehow feeling a lot better now that she was back in her usual peppy spirits. They bounced on the springy trampoline for quite some time, leaving Rosie flushed and excited. Shortly after, Clara came home from her day at the lab, and Shadow wondered if she worked in a different building than Maria. He hadn’t seen her, and Maria hadn’t mentioned her.

Walter had made dinner again. Shadow wondered if he did it all the time. After dinner, Rosie had to introduce him to their pet snake Cleopatra. She was a Ball Python that made Shadow’s quills stand on end when Walter brought her out of her cage. Rosie loved Cleopatra—Shadow did not. When he said as much when she tried to get him to hold her, Rosie just sighed and said, “Mama doesn’t like her either.”

It took some time for Shadow to get Rosie to let him leave, but Clara made sure Rosie said goodbye and let him go. Rosie wanted to see him again tomorrow, so he promised he’d come by after school again. The sun was setting by the time he headed home. He was surprised to see Maria just pulling into the garage when he slowed to a walk in the yard.

As she opened the door, stepping out of her vehicle, she gave him a sheepish smile. “Sorry, Shadow, I didn’t mean to be so late. I just lost track of the time. I’m glad you didn’t have to wait on me, though.”

Shadow nodded. “It’s all right. Rosie managed to keep me occupied.”

Maria smiled wryly, her wrinkles smiling with her. “Oh I’m sure she did,” she agreed, hitting the button that made the garage door close noisily behind them. He followed her into the house as she asked, “You want a microwave meal?”

“No thank you,” he said, not particularly hungry, having ate Walter’s meal or not. He never really was very hungry unless he overexerted himself, his body perfectly capable of being fueled by the Chaos Energies inside him.

She headed into the kitchen, opening the freezer to get one for herself and popped it into the microwave. “So what do you think?” she asked, stretching tiredly. Her bones creaked as she did so, reminding Shadow of her age again. “Movie night? We can watch Psycho again. Or Halloween—that one came out when you were asleep. So did Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which for some reason I bet you would love, but it scared me too badly to actually buy that one.”

His ears perked up. A massacre with a chainsaw did sound strangely enticing. “It had a lot of gore?” he asked, just to be sure.

Maria gave a delicate shudder. “Honestly, not really, but it just generally freaked me out. You know I don’t watch the gory ones. Walter might watch those with you though. Gross.”

Shadow’s lips pulled slightly as she disappeared upstairs to change as the microwave cooked her food. As she did, he looked at her movie shelf next to the TV. She had an assortment of sci-fi, suspense, and horror, with several chick flicks punctuating the mass. The most of them were Alfred Hitchcock movies, but Shadow eventually just chose Halloween since she had suggested it. Maria came back downstairs and got her food as Shadow put the tape in. There were some smaller cases that said DVD that Shadow wasn’t familiar with.

As Maria fast forwarded through the advertisements, she said thoughtfully, “You’d probably really like Scream too. Ugh,” and she shivered, “I hated Scream. It scared me for months. It ruined phones for me for at least three weeks.”

“Phones?” Shadow echoed her, lifting a brow.

She hit play when the movie started, saying only, “Oh, we’ll definitely have to watch it then. Maybe it’ll be less scary when I’ve got you around,” and she grinned, elbowing him affectionately.

“What,” he said back, fangs flashing with his grin, “want me to protect you from the big bad psychopaths?” Absently, his eyes caught the opening scene of Halloween, and he suddenly turned his attention to the TV. “Is this from the killer’s point of view?” he asked. That was new. That was actually super interesting, and it was probably going to be a lot more fun.

“Just this scene,” Maria corrected him as they watched. As she ate her meal Shadow watched attentively, complained briefly about how they always had to have the human girl naked, and then express his surprise that the killer was a little boy. Maria just smiled around a mouthful of noodles.

The night was wonderful. He had a blast watching a new scary movie with better visual fidelity—“Look at the blood, Maria!”—and complaining about how she tensed up before each jump scare and gave it away. She argued she couldn’t help it since she had seen this one already.

Maria screamed shrilly at all the right moments, but they didn’t spill any of the popcorn. Even after the movie they ended up talking into the night like they used to, mostly chatting about the kinds of movies out and Maria’s favorites. She was already planning on making him sit through a chick flick called Sleepless in Seattle since it was her favorite movie.

And as Shadow parted with Maria in the upstairs hallway, her needing to get her sleep before she headed off to work again in the morning, he knew he was happier than he had ever been before in his life. He kicked off his shoes late that night and crawled into the spare bedroom’s bright carnation bedspread, he realized, ridiculous home decorating aside, this was the only place in the world he wanted to be.


	5. Chaos

****

  
**“Some say they have the answers**   
**Some say they know the truth**   
**Some people live in question**   
**Some people have no clue”**

**Anywhere but Here __ Five Finger Death Punch**   


Shadow’s week proceeded extremely slowly.

Quite frankly, after having been in Eggman’s employment and battles with Sonic, Shadow found out quickly that the mundanity of civilian life didn’t really suit him. Of course, he did love late nights talking to Maria, eating ice cream and even being forced to watch a chick flick or two, but he was bored through the day. For how much he enjoyed the company of Maria and Rosie, he was restless. He didn’t have . . . purpose to his life the way he used to, and now he found himself adrift and longing for something more.

Even on the ARK he had been provided with something more. Whether he was contributing to the cure of Maria’s NIDS or bending to the will of G.U.N. he always had a greater purpose. Now, however? Maria was cured. He didn’t have to subject to G.U.N.’s mechanisms. He didn’t have to answer to anyone. It was what he had always wanted, right? So then why was he so discontented?

“What do you think?”

Shadow blinked, rapidly coming back to himself and seeing Rosie holding two packs of napkins. Half of them were strewn a little haphazardly across the kitchen table’s blue tablecloth. Uncertainly, Shadow hedged, “What do I think about what?”

Rosie gave him an utterly exasperated look. “Should they go blue, blue, yellow, yellow? Or blue, yellow, blue, yellow?”

Of course, Shadow didn’t know a thing about interior decorating, but the kitchen and living room had been decorated liberally for the baby shower in mostly blues and yellows. Somehow, it made the mess of colors even more painful to look at. Shrugging a shoulder, Shadow said half-heartedly, “Alternating.”

Rosie nodded solemnly, saying, “That’s what I thought too,” and began stacking the napkins up. Shadow looked across the dining room into the kitchen where Maria was stirring up lemonade. Her eyes were fixed on the storm outside, wind and rain pouring. As another roll of thunder passed overhead, Shadow walked into the kitchen with her.

“Is everything all right?” he asked her.

She blinked out of her reverie, and she flushed a little. “No,” she said, shaking her head, “I was just thinking. Um . . . It’s just sad it’s raining. Clara was hoping for a sunny day so we could all be out in the yard.”

“Oh,” Shadow said simply, not sure what to say beyond that. He helpfully opened the refrigerator for her so she could put the pitcher of lemonade inside. Sensing there was more going on than a little rain, Shadow rounded the kitchen island as Maria used the wet washcloth to wipe the counters.

Finally, she took a breath, asking, “Shadow . . . Do you ever wonder how Grandpa brought you to life?”

His brows lifted. He didn’t know she was still thinking about that. Leaning his arms against the counter, Shadow rested his chin on his forearms. “Sometimes,” he admitted. His tail flicked thoughtfully, and he told her, “I think about it more than I did before. How . . .” and he looked at his hands, “how any of it happened, really. Why?”

She seemed to hesitate, preoccupying herself by wiping some of the leftover sugar from the countertop. “I um . . .” Maria paused and collected her thoughts again, as if trying to make sure not to say the wrong thing. “I was . . . consigned to Grandpa’s older research projects, and that included the mystery of how he created you. Created life from nothing.”

Shadow felt his arms slip down off the counter, the island standing oceans between them. His mouth creaked open to rasp, “For G.U.N.?”

Maria’s blue eyes lifted quickly to him. “No!” she burst immediately, and the tight knot in his chest relaxed at her quick, genuine answer. “Of course not, Shadow. They have showed their considerable interest in my progress, but all of the research is safely in the hands of scientists. My hands.” She slouched a little into herself, shoulders caving forward slightly. “It was . . . far too great a discovery for the realm of science to keep out of it, Shadow,” she tried to persuade him. “Grandpa did what we all thought was impossible. They thought if anyone could find the answer, it would be me. A Robotnik.”

“I think it’d be great if Gramma could find out how to make life,” Rosie piped in suddenly, and both Shadow and Maria looked to the little girl at the side. She grinned, saying, “She could make a lot of people happy! People wouldn’t have to die anymore!”

Shadow’s quills twitched with unease at the thought of an unnatural world without death. Perhaps it had been best that Gerald’s work had been lost? Maria on the other hand bit her lip, saying with a slightly strained smile, “Yes, of course, sweetheart. But Gramma hasn’t made too much headway with the secret to immortality. See, I still think it’s impossible.”

“But Shadow’s going to live forever, isn’t he?” Rosie asked, turning her big blue eyes on Shadow.

His throat tightened at the thought. He would. Unable to formulate an answer about that, it was Maria that said, “Yes. Yes he is.”

Rosie brightened considerably, bursting, “Then he can help you! Can’t he? You always said that if it was even possible, the secrets would have died with Shadow. But here he is! And he survived even the atmosphere burning him up! He could help you, couldn’t he?”

There was a beat of silence in which Maria didn’t answer. Then, with a sharp rasp of air through her teeth, she finally looked down at the counter and squeezed out, “Y-Yes, he could certainly help me a lot.” She avoided his gaze, fingers tightening on the countertop. Her shadow seemed to loom behind her. “I’m sure he could . . . could help me with my research . . . I just . . .”

Finally, with alarm, Shadow noticed the tears she was trying hard not to let him see. “Maria?” he gaped, stunned to see her crying so easily over . . . over what? Frantically, trying to absolve the issue, Shadow blurted without thinking, “Maria, it’s fine, I can help you with your research!” When she seemed to wince at his words, he reached across the island counter and grabbed her hands, saying again, “It’s going to be fine, Maria. I’ll help. I know how much this means to you.”

Throat working, Maria took a deep breath and bit her lip, nodding without meeting his gaze. “Thank you, Shadow,” she whispered quietly.

She sniffled once again, so Shadow squeezed her hand and moved towards the corner of the kitchen where a box of tissues sat. He stepped in a puddle as he did so, frowning at the rain pouring against the back door and pooling on the floor.

He pulled a tissue free, saying, “Maria, I think the door is leaking—”

The water ripped and swelled. Startled, Shadow took a step back into the counter as the water lifted tall as him and congealed into a vaguely humanoid shape. Its brain bobbed luminescent in its head, and piercing green eyes glowered at him as Rosie shrieked, “Whoa! Cool!”

Before Shadow could fully process the thing in front of him, its arm lifted, fist swelling larger, and it slung with the weight of a boulder into his chest.

Maria screamed, and pain slugged low into Shadow as the lower doors of the counter splintered beneath his weight. Completely winded, Shadow sucked in a gasp and scrambled to his feet when the thing moved toward his girls. Lunging forward with a snarl, Shadow attacked it from behind, and his fist passed straight through its watery body, making him nearly hurtle directly into Maria.

A gurgling growl rose from the creature, and its aqueous fist rose up again. Flinging Maria out of the way, the water crushed against him. Flying backwards, Shadow’s back bowed back painfully over the sink, and his elbow hit the sharp edge of plastic—the dishes in the drain rack spilled and shattered all over the floor, sending glass shards everywhere.

Maria collapsed backwards as the thing—CHAOS, Shadow realized wildly—advanced again. Rosie stood motionless, eyes wide, until Maria shouted at her, “Rosie, run!” The little girl immediately bolted up the stairs, and Maria shrieked again, throwing herself around the opposite side of the island counter when Chaos plowed both fists into the ground.

Frantically, Shadow realized it was slow. Even Maria could dodge it at this state, but not for long. Curling up, Shadow hurtled in a swift spin dash towards the ancient deity. Again, his spines slice through the water without resistance, and he snarled, landing on his feet soaking wet as Chaos began to pursue Maria in earnest.

“Maria!” he shouted angrily as she backed in the direction of the back door, “Get out of here!”

When Chaos reeled back for another attack, this time with the intent to kill, Shadow lifted both fists and swung down on the only thing he could see that was physical—the brain.

His panicked heart settled a little when he finally struck a blow that caught its attention. Chaos roared and took its murderous gaze off Maria. Satisfied now that it was focusing on him, Shadow bared his teeth and lunged forward, fists pummeling at the vulnerable brain. The god quailed back before swinging wide and heavy, and Shadow darted around it, shouting at Maria, “I said go!” Was she actually rummaging in the cabinets while this was happening? He whirled to face his adversary and had just enough time to widen his eyes, see the arm stretching like a rubber band across the room, and have Chaos’ fist plow into him again.

Shadow crashed into the broken cabinets again, this time taking them completely off their hinges. Gasping heavily—the thing hit like a freight train!—Shadow staggered to his feet again. Maria was actually on top of the counter now, plugging a cord into a socket.

“Shadow! Move!”

Wildly, realizing he was standing on a floor covered in conductive water, Shadow balled up and leapt over Chaos’ head, landing on the counter with her. Maria turned the knob on the plugged-in skillet plug, Chaos turned around to face them, and she pitched the conducting plug end into the body of water.

The effect instantly caused Chaos to howl and writhe in pain when the electricity surged through its body. Smoke swirled up from the creature as its body rippled visibly with the currents, and a thick burning smell filled the air. With another splitting screech, its body pooled down into a puddle again, and it slinked away under the door and back into the rain.

Panting with Maria on top of the counter, fur dripping water, Shadow stared in the direction of where Chaos had fled. For a moment, neither of them said anything, until Shadow looked in shock at her, saying blankly, “Maria?”

Her flushed face continued to blush red, this time with embarrassment. “I . . . Well, it was made of water, and I had to assume it wasn’t pure water since it had a brain. So I assumed it would conduct electricity.” Shyly, she unplugged the cord.

Shadow stared a beat more at her. “You are absolutely brilliant,” he complimented her, genuinely impressed. His eyes flicked up and down her. “Are you all right?”

Her blue eyes dropped from his again, and she nodded. “Yes, I’m fine,” she said, and she gave a soft groan as she turned from her knees and sat on the counter. “I’m getting far too old for these kinds of things, Shadow,” she teased lightly, giving him a brave smile.

When she moved to get down, he grabbed her knee, saying quickly, “Don’t. I’ll get the broom.”

Heading into the closet, Shadow grabbed the broom and came back out and swept the floor. As he did so, his eyes caught a few shards of glass embedded on the bottom, rubbery edges of her white tennis shoes. His heart squeezed as he murmured, “You could have been hurt,” and he grasped her foot, turning her ankle out so he could pull the glass out.

Maria just gave a small laugh at that, saying, “Well, it could have been a lot worse. I guess we just make a great team, don’t we?”

Shadow glanced up at her little grin, and though a shadow of worry still pressed over him, he couldn’t help but let his lips quirk up a little. “We certainly do,” he said, pulling the last shard out and beginning to sweep the rest of the china up.

“Can I come out now?”

Looking up quickly, Maria burst, “Oh, stay right there, Rosie! There’s glass all over the floor and you’ll get it all in those cute little feet of yours, all right?”

Rosie nodded, her pig-tails bouncing. “Okay. What was that? It was cool! I mean, scary, but pretty cool. How did it keep a solid form? It was all water!”

“It was Chaos,” Shadow told her, sweeping the floor a little obnoxiously. He didn’t want to leave even the tiniest shard behind, especially when Maria and Rosie walked around barefoot so much. The large parts he picked up by hand, stowing them inside the concave of what used to be a bowl. 

“Chaos?”  Rosie asked with a pinch of her nose, “What’s that? Like the chaos Gramma studies?”

“I think so,” Shadow said casting his eyes about for any other glass. Maria slid carefully from the counter, grabbing several plastic bags from the closet. He shook some of the water from his quills, saying, “From what I’ve heard, it’s a water deity made from Chaos. Knuckles let the Master Emerald shatter again, so it escaped.”

The plastic bags crinkled noisily behind him. “The Master Emerald?” Maria asked in a small voice.

Shadow turned to face her, and he frowned. He asked, “Maria, what’s wrong?”

She bit her lip and hurriedly tried to explain, “I mean—Scientifically, wouldn’t that be dangerous? If . . .” Her hands wrung the bags. “I-If the Master Emerald serves as an intermediary for the Chaos Emeralds, does that mean nothing holds them in check right now? Can it be put back together? Could Chaos be sealed again?”

Shadow shrugged at her worry. “I don’t know. Knuckles is looking to put it back together again, so I suppose it’s not a big deal that it’s broken. And if Sonic put Chaos away once, he can do it again.”

Maria’s thoughts seemed far away, and she frowned down pensively at the bags, opening them up and layering them in one another. Shadow dumped the glass carefully inside, and she put it in the trash can, asking, “Do you think it will come back?”

“I don’t understand why it would,” Shadow told her truthfully. He frowned, muttering, “I don’t know why it was attacking you in the first place. Seems like an immortal Chaos god would have bigger things on its mind.”

“Yeah . . .”

When Maria failed to look reassured, Shadow grabbed her hand and squeezed. “Don’t worry, Maria,” he told her. His heart panged uneasily as he said, “I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise.”

Maria managed to find a smile for him, and then she seemed to shake it off, saying, “Oh no, we’ve got to get this house ready before the guests get here! Here, help me with this.”

Of all things, Shadow found himself mopping the floor of all the water and then going over it again with bread, the softness of it catching the little bits of glass that the mop and broom couldn’t. Then they went over the floor once again with damp paper towels until Maria deemed it safe. They threw the broken cabinets in the trash too, toweled Shadow’s fur dry, and it was just in time for the women to start arriving with gifts.

Ridiculous as it was, Maria had still expected Shadow to leave after the event with Chaos. Refusing to leave her side, Shadow quietly brooded in a corner about the turn of events as Maria entertained and Clara opened her baby shower gifts. Maria expertly deflected questions about her missing cabinet doors while Shadow kept an eye out for Chaos in case it returned.

Quite frankly, he had no idea what an ancient god would want with Maria. Perhaps she still had traces of Chaos energy on her after handling Chaos theory in her workplace? Maybe they had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time? Shadow couldn’t tell. All he knew was that he wasn’t going to let her out of his sight.

*

“Shadow, you and I need to have a small talk.”

It was morning. Shadow himself had taken to cooking breakfast to surprise Maria before she headed off to work again. Picking at his food, Shadow lifted his gaze to her, asking, “What is it?”

He tried to cover up his worry. Had he done something wrong? Maria just sighed softly, saying carefully, “Shadow, I appreciate your concern, I really do . . .” and she smiled faintly, “but I don’t literally want you as my shadow.”

Shadow laid his fork on the table. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m saying that you haven’t left me alone for nearly a week now!” Maria said in exasperation. She pushed eggs about her plate nervously, but she kept her guileless gaze on him. “Shadow,” she explained, “you’ve followed me everywhere I’ve gone and I know it’s because Chaos attacked, but you’ve got to give me a little space!”

“I—” Self-consciously, Shadow tried to avoid her gaze, saying defensively, “I have to protect you.” Inwardly, he kicked himself. That didn’t sound very convincing, nor did it provide him with a good excuse. Yes, he was worried, but he knew deep down he wanted Chaos to come back. It pleased him to be able to protect Maria and have something to fight. It at least gave him a reason to be around and something important to do.

“And you’re doing a wonderful job,” Maria assured him gently, “just . . .” Her eyes flicked down to her eggs and bacon. “You don’t have to follow me to work every day. I’m a grown woman, Shadow, and I’ll be fine. Clearly Chaos has moved on to bigger things.”

“How can you be sure?” he asked.

Her lips curled a little as she said, “Call it woman’s intuition, Shadow. Besides, I know you’ll be there if I need you. Why don’t you spend some time with your friends today?”

Shadow blinked, realizing dumbly that she meant . . . Sonic. “Um . . .” Evasively, he rubbed his thumbs over the red roses embroidered on her white tablecloth. Would he see Sonic and his friends? No way. But . . . He supposed he could try to go see Rogue if she wasn’t working today.

And then, it hit Shadow like a ton of bricks. His eyes widened, and he looked up to Maria briefly before he stared down on the red roses. He was being clingy. She was very politely trying to tell him to give her some space. He was annoying her. Guilty and crestfallen, Shadow half-heartedly muttered, “Of course.”

Maria’s tired eyes sighed, and she reached out, saying, “Shadow, I didn’t mean it like that. You know I—”

She did mean it like that; she just didn’t want to hurt his feelings. “It’s fine,” he interrupted her, not wanting her to have to give him any more excuses. She didn’t have to. “I’ll find something to do.”

Before she could argue the point with him more, a knock sounded at the door. Both human and hedgehog looked up. Feeling unwanted, Shadow stood from the table before Maria could and went to answer the door. He flung it open and his brows shot up.

“Knuckles?”

“Shadow,” he said back, nodding toward him. There was a pause, and then Knuckles elaborated, “I was in the area, so I came by to tell you congratulations for finding Maria.” He found a small smile then, saying, “I think it’s good you’ve got your best friend back.”

Shadow nodded and said, “Thank you.” Knuckles stood expectantly for a minute, so Shadow shifted uncomfortably on his feet. “Was there something else?” he ventured when the guardian failed to leave.

At that, he made Knuckles actually snicker a little. “Well, aren’t you going to introduce me to her? You nearly blew up the planet for her, so I think that warrants an introduction.”

“Shadow? Is this one of your friends?”

Maria came up behind him, and her smile froze on her face at the sight of Knuckles. Knuckles eyes widened in surprise, and his hands fisted and he snarled, “You!” Shadow spread his legs protectively, spines stiffening and barring the way as Knuckles took a step forward, yanking his little pouch of emerald pieces slightly behind him. He burst, “You were that woman trespassing on MY island!”

When he approached too much, Shadow shoved at the guardian’s chest and sent him staggering back a step. Amethyst eyes latched to Shadow, and he bristled. Shadow narrowed his eyes, sneering, “Is there a problem here, Knuckles?”

“Yeah, there’s a problem,” Knuckles spat directly, blunt with his words. “She,” and he pointed aggressively while Maria shrank, “and her lot of scientists were poking around on MY island! They were trying to steal the Master Emerald!”

“That’s not true!” Maria protested, keeping her eyes on Knuckles. “If you would just listen, we never—”

“It’s not, is it?” Knuckles snapped angrily. “Then why did your cousin Eggman show up only a month later and shatter it! If you couldn’t have all of it, you decided that at least one little bit would do the trick for whatever mad science you’re doing?”

Maria drained of all color, and her hands fell to her side as she avoided his judgmental gaze. Shadow bared his teeth a little and took a step out of the house, snarling dangerously, “Back off, Knuckles. Maria is telling the truth. You said it yourself—Dr. Robotnik shattered your emerald, not her. Maria is nothing like him.”

“Blood is thicker than water,” Knuckles leered back over his shoulder, eyeing Maria with distrust.

She looked back up at him then, lips trembling as she said evenly, “Then you should know that phrase is actually a misuse of the phrase, ‘The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb,’ and your suspicions are unfounded. I don’t know what my cousin is doing. Yes, my colleagues and I went to investigate the Master Emerald, but no, we would never steal it or intentionally cause harm to you or your island.”

Shadow tensely stood between them, his sharp eyes watching Knuckles for any sudden movements. The echidna’s nose wrinkled as he declared, “You shouldn’t have been on my island in the first place.”

Maria nodded, continuing, “I know. I apologize for trespassing when we shouldn’t have. I suppose that is a fault of scientists, being too curious and ambitious for our own sakes. We work with Chaos Theory, and the Master Emerald seems to be the crux of it all.” She took a steadying breath as Knuckles slowly relaxed a little, hiking his pouch of emeralds over his shoulder, even if he still looked at her warily. “I’m sorry, Knuckles. I never meant any ill will.”

Slowly but surely Knuckles let go of his aggression, and he crossed his arms, grunting, “Fine. But don’t think I’m going to forget this.”

Filled with misgivings about the guardian’s attitude towards Maria, Shadow slinked upright again, glaring and crossing his arms as well. Maria looked down on the both of them mimicking each other before she gave a little gasp and looked up to the clock. “Oh, I’m going to be late for work!” She hurried back to the table and snatched her keys, lab coat, and her half-eaten toast. She hurried, “I’m sorry, I have to run,” and she squeezed Shadow’s shoulder as she passed out the front door. Knuckles at least had enough grace in him to step out of her way. “I’ll see you tonight, Shadow!”

Both Shadow and Knuckles watched her car pull out and disappear from sight. Finally, Knuckles grunted and said, “I’d ask her more about her intentions with the Master Emerald if I were you.”

Shadow bristled again. “No,” he said, “that’s what you would do. And she already told you her intentions. She’s a scientist. She wanted to study it.”

Knuckles scoffed, “You’re just blindly defending her!”

“And you’re just blindly attacking her!”

The guardian’s taunt arms slacked to his sides as he regarded the dark hedgehog in front of him. “Maria wouldn’t hurt anyone,” Shadow defended his point. “The girl who made me promise to keep a planet of people safe whom she’d never met before?”

Knuckles set his jaw and relented, “Fine, maybe I’m wrong, but people change, Shadow.”

“Not Maria,” he said immediately.

Knuckles paused. “Maybe not,” he said evasively, “but I’m suspicious for good reason. I have to protect the Master Emerald, and anyone who’s ever sought it out is only looking to control its power.”

“Oh yes,” Shadow sneered, “you did an excellent job of protecting it.”

Knuckles’ eyes narrowed as they argued on Maria’s front porch. “It was either I let Eggman get his paws on the Chaos Emeralds on Angel Island or the Master Emerald. I let him take the Master Emerald as far as the edges of my island before I shattered it to keep him from stealing it. I can put it back together, so other than being in pieces, it’s safe for now.”

Begrudgingly, Shadow couldn’t argue with that. They gazed at one another, sizing each other up silently before Shadow abruptly changed the subject, announcing, “Chaos attacked Maria last week.”

Knuckles started, saying, “He attacked her? I thought . . .” and his brows pinched in thought. “I thought Chaos understood and had let go of his anger. Last I knew, Chaos went back into the Master Emerald willingly and without malice. Why would he be attacking now . . . ?”

“That’s what I want to know,” Shadow agreed. “Why Maria out of any other people?”

“It makes no sense for Chaos to single her out,” Knuckles admitted with a frown. “Unless . . . Unless for some reason Chaos has reverted back to the way he was before and world destruction is on his mind again. But collecting the Chaos Emeralds would be first thing on his mind. Maria doesn’t have one, does she?”

“I don’t think so,” Shadow replied. One of his fingers tapped on his crossed arms, and he said, “I thought maybe it was because she works with Chaos Theory. Chao drives are filled with Chaos energy, so the traces of the energies still linger on her. Didn’t you feel it?”

Knuckles grunted and shook his head, admitting, “I wasn’t paying attention to that. I thought it came from you. Even so, I don’t know if it would be enough to attract Chaos—”

The guardian stopped short suddenly, and at the look of horror that overcame his features, Shadow’s arms slipped down. “What?” he asked. “What is it?”

He cursed and ran back down the steps. “How could I be so stupid!” Shadow followed him before he ran out of earshot. “If he’s looking for Chaos Emeralds, then I know exactly where he could have found some!”


	6. Angel Island

****

  
**“Somewhere, something is calling for you**   
**Two worlds, one family**   
**Trust your heart**   
**Let fate decide**   
**To guide these lives we see”**

**_Two Worlds __ Phil Collins_ **   


Shadow followed Knuckles as he ran, pleasantly surprised at the guardian’s speed, even if it was still but an easy run for him. Even as fast as they traveled, the trip still took the greater half of the day, crossing back east through Station Square and following the train tracks deep north. The landscape grew wild and rough as they left the cities behind and headed into the jungle. The day became stifling hot and humid as the forest thickened about them, and Knuckles finally veered away from the train tracks and off the beaten path of the Mystic Ruins.

The jungle’s large canopy only allowed slants of sunlight to pierce into the dark forest floor. Both echidna and hedgehog made as great speed as they could through the tangled undergrowth and overgrown tree roots. The ground was soft and springy, permanently moist from the frequent thunderstorms, and the mud caked to the bottom of their shoes. Vines tumbled down from the treetops, and the labyrinth of wood seemed to stretch on and on until Shadow began to wonder if he’d really be able to find his way home through it all. His heart warmed briefly at the thought of the home he would return to even as his temper grew fouler and fouler because of the uninhabitable terrain they wormed their way through.

Knuckles didn’t seem to tire as they made the journey. Shadow grumbled under his breath when a late afternoon rainstorm poured torrents of rain over them only to have clear skies again roughly an hour later. Still, determined not to let the elements get to him, Shadow doggedly followed Knuckles, curious about this place that had some Chaos Emeralds free for the pickings. If he had known about it, he would have snatched one for himself a long time ago.

The Mystic Ruins only seemed to grow denser. Thoroughly annoyed at the pliable mud sucking on his shoes and the stunning lack of ruins, relief poured through Shadow when they finally broke free of the swampy forest.

Hot, wet, and muddy, Shadow slowed to a stop at the edge of the jungle. There in the distance was an island. It was nestled in the sea, just at the shore of steep cliffs and hills. The island was massive; continental, even. Struck in awe of it, Shadow’s crimson eyes flicked over the towering mountain range capped with icy peaks, deep rainforests, an ocean of sand, and canyons galore. There were ivory floating ruins, waterfalls sliding off the island edge, a handful of pyramids, and (he had to blink twice) what looked to be a thicket of giant mushrooms.

Briefly impressed by the grandeur of the island, it was seeing Knuckles leap and glide over the bridgeless gap that spurred Shadow into action. He couldn’t let himself get left behind here—he doubted he could navigate the massive island on his own. Shaking some of the water from his quills, Shadow skated over the hills, gaining speed until he touched the edge of the cliff and leapt off with all his might. He soared over the wide chasm and landed safely on the edge of the island.

Chasing after Knuckles, Shadow’s mind was distracted by the beauty of the island. He zoomed past the colorful array of clustered mushrooms, the zone gone too quickly before they were running through another deep swamp. They cut quickly through the marshland and into a dilapidated city overgrown with greenery and the cracks of ages. The once great metropolis sprawled in a caricature of its former glory, and Shadow followed Knuckles over creeks and brambles until the guardian finally cut into a rickety building and headed underground.

Shadow’s eyes wandered inside the subterranean cavern full of running water, the trickle of water echoing clearly in the abandoned city depths. Sparkling gems and rocky, regal structures decorated the grotto, and Shadow wondered at the ancient civilization that had once lived here. They passed through nooks and crannies and wove their way deep into the temple, out of breath and tiring from their lengthy journey.

All too soon they came upon their destination. Shadow slowed again, walking as his head turned up in the large underground cathedral to see the luminescent stones embedded in the bedrock. Before him was a large shrine and seven pillars surrounded the altar in the center. He approached the foot of the stairs where Knuckles cursed under his breath.

“Of course. They’re gone.”

Craning his head up, Shadow saw that every space was empty. So this was the place where the Master and Chaos Emeralds rightfully resided? He resisted the urge to shuffle his feet, suddenly wondering if Knuckles had allowed him to step foot into a holy place.

“You left two Chaos Emeralds unguarded out here?” Shadow asked him.

Knuckles scowled and crossed his arms. “I can’t be in two places at once. Without the Master Emerald, Angel Island will be permanently grounded and will deteriorate.”

Shadow blinked at him and repeated for clarification, “Grounded?”

Knuckles hiked a brow at him. “Angel Island floats,” he explained shortly.

So on top of all the beauty he had seen, the island became even more mythical by floating. And Knuckles said it so matter-of-factly that it made Shadow annoyed that he hadn’t known when this was clearly common information. Disgruntled, he shot back, “So Chaos stole how many Chaos Emeralds from here?”

“Two,” Knuckles said, looking up again at the empty pillars. “He can’t travel very fast though. Let me see if he’s left the island yet.” The guardian rushed out again, hardly stopping for breath as he searched.

Left alone in the Hidden Palace, Shadow looked upon the ancient murals around the room, impressed by the deep history nestled into every nook and cranny of the place. Deep inside the grotto, the invading roots of plants hadn’t yet begun to destroy the closely interlocked stone. The shrine room had aged well, if water erosion had deepened the gullies.

Shadow walked around, taking in the beautiful architecture and intricate designs engraved in the stones. Each footfall echoed ominously in the hollowed bedrock, but it was surprisingly peaceful. The aches of travel were pushed to the back of Shadow’s mind as he opened himself to this place and its mysteries. An energy of old filled the room, making his veins thrum in tandem, eager to understand and know it. His curiosity was piqued, and he wanted to explore.

Yet, he found his feet drawn to the steps of the altar. Unbidden he walked up the stairwell to the top of the shrine of the Master Emerald, and his heart began to pound in his chest. Something tugged within himself as a prickle of déjà vu passed over him, and Shadow instinctively looked around, as if he knew the place. Trying to shake the odd feeling, Shadow stood before the empty shrine and placed his hand on the edge of the altar. The prickling intensified, and a sense of belonging filled him, even if he had never been here before. Drawn in for some reason, Shadow stood there, feeling as if he could sense everything on the island and the way it groaned and suffered without the Master Emerald to sustain it.

“Chaos is long gone.”

Shadow started, coming back to himself with a jerk and snatching his hand away from the shrine. Knuckles had all but sneaked up on him, coming up the last steps of the altar. The guardian peered at him, suspicious and interested both in Shadow’s guilty action before he came to some sort of conclusion about it. Clearly he chose not to mind it, because he approached the tabernacle and laid his pouch of emerald shards on it.

Shadow backed up, allowing him space as he watched him untie the pouch and expose the shards varying in sizes from fist-sized chunks to barely visible slithers. Power emanated from the shards and surged through the room. It buzzed through Shadow’s veins, but it originated from Knuckles, his hands spread wide as the guardian used a power Shadow never had. The pieces of the Master Emerald glowed, floating slightly as they arranged themselves on the altar, and Shadow flinched when a bright flare of light blinded him. When he looked back, he saw that the shards had fused together again, creating the jagged base of the Master Emerald.

Knuckles sighed as he let his hands fall to his sides. It was evident he still had a long way to go, and Shadow shifted, asking, “So how long will it take to find all the pieces?”

“Depends how far they were flung,” Knuckles stated. “As a defense mechanism, the Master Emerald scatters the pieces far and wide so no one but the guardian can find them all. Several months at worst, a month at best.”

Not knowing what to say to that, Shadow looked around the Hidden Palace again, somehow unable to take his eyes off of its grandeur. Knuckles’ lips quirked up, and he asked, “You like it?”

His quills twitched self-consciously. “Yes,” he admitted. “This place is beautiful. All of Angel Island that I’ve seen, actually.”

“Well, feel free to visit anytime,” Knuckles said to him, and Shadow looked back at him, stunned. Knuckles spread his hands. “It’s not going anywhere anytime soon, and contrary to the popular thought, I do get bored up on this island sometimes.” Mildly amused, Shadow cocked his head at Knuckles who shrugged and said, “You better start heading back if you want to make it home before nightfall. The sun’s going to set soon.”

“Right,” Shadow replied, moving to leave. Knuckle’s deep voice lifted, echoing in the sacred chambers.

“And hey, keep an eye out for Chaos. I don’t think he would attack Maria again, but . . . Better safe than sorry, I always say. If I see him, I’ll try to talk some sense into him.”

Shadow barely concealed a snort at that. Talk sense into an ancient Chaos god bent upon destruction? It was so ridiculous it was . . . something Maria would try, probably. “We’ll be careful,” Shadow told him. “See you around, Knuckles.”

Leaving with a burst of energy from his skates, Shadow propelled forward and back out into the waning daylight. He pitied missing the chance to really travel the island, but since he had Knuckles’ grace to return, Shadow already began planning to make return trips to explore to his heart’s content.

Going home didn’t take nearly as long because he could run as fast as he liked without Knuckles slowing him down. Still, the sun had set by the time he crossed the Mystic Ruins, the stretch to Station Square, and back around to Central City. Shadow was grateful to see the yellow house and he trotted up the steps, finding that the door had been left unlocked for him.

“ . . . doing the best I can! This is far more complicated than just a little—”

Maria’s voice suddenly stopped mid-sentence as the door closed behind him. She wasn’t in the living room, so she had to be in the kitchen? Shadow lifted his voice, calling, “Maria?”

There was a beat, then, “Shadow?” She continued, presumably talking to someone else, “Look, I’ll have to call you back,” and Shadow rounded the corner to see her nervously drop her cell phone back in her pocket. Maria looked up expectantly, her mouth poised to say something, but it was dashed from her mind as she instead stifled a giggle. “Shadow, you’re filthy!” she laughed. “And you’re tracking mud all over my clean carpet!”

Flushing, realizing he was indeed tracking flakes of dried mud everywhere he stepped, Shadow slipped the shoes off and apologized. Maria just waved him off, her wrinkles smiling as she asked, “Did you have fun today?”

Shadow hesitated when he thought of all the traveling. He ventured, “I wouldn’t call it fun, but it was certainly interesting.” His eyes lit up as he mentioned, “I saw Angel Island, Maria. It was beautiful.”

Already in her pajamas this late in the night, Maria’s bare feet walked into the dining room with him and pulled out a chair. She sat down with a wistful smile, agreeing, “It is very beautiful, isn’t it? I would have loved to go back one day, but I’m afraid my last stunt has worn off my welcome permanently.”

The edges of what might have been a smile flickered from Shadow’s face. His brows pinched and he asked, “Maria, what DID happen out there?”

“Well,” she said thoughtfully, stretching her knees, “if you want to know everything, it starts over ten years ago.” Shadow motioned for her to continue and politely declined a seat so he wouldn’t dirty the house. “You see, scientists always KNEW the Master Emerald existed. History had mentioned the elusive emerald more than once along with the famous Floating Isle of the Echidnas, but we had never found it. Some discounted it as religious prattle, but the deeper into Chaos studies I went, the more evidence we discovered that there was truth to all of it. And over ten years ago, we found it.”

Maria gave a small smile, saying, “We have the technology now that we can trace Chaos energy, and by extension, the Chaos energy that the Master Emerald puts out. A massive surge in energy happened, and a small team was dispatched to investigate. We had never had readings of Chaos energy this highly concentrated, even when Chaos Emeralds were used.”

She frowned, fingers plucking at the tablecloth. “Still,” she said, “they didn’t find anything beyond the beauty of the island and a single sentient life form. They weren’t sure what it was, only that it was springing traps and attacking them to get them off the island. It was when they nearly lost half the team to a collapsing bridge that they were forced to leave.”

“Sounds like Knuckles to me,” Shadow inputted.

Maria’s lips twisted wryly. “I bet you it was him. We never found out why the Master Emerald had emitted such a massive surge in energy, but it lied nearly completely dormant afterwards, stagnant with excessive energies we could track, yes, but never in use. We only tried one more exploration team that was run off again without results before they cut funding and we were forced to close the research project.”

Shadow crossed his arms thoughtfully, jumping in with, “Until recently, right?”

“Yes,” she said with a nod, “until recently. Two years ago the Master Emerald had another surge in energy so powerful that we assume the result was that it shattered—thus, releasing Chaos for the first time. It renewed our interest—my interest—in the Master Emerald and its untapped powers. We knew the Chaos Emeralds were powerful because Sonic could harness them, but if the Master Emerald controls them, wouldn’t it have even greater power? I wondered if it could assist me in my research on eternal life and my understanding of Chaos theory.”

She paused. She dropped her eyes. “So, just a few months ago, we suddenly gained funding that allowed us to take another trip to Angel Island.” She chewed uncertainly on her bottom lip before admitting, “G.U.N. funded the trip.”

Shadow scowled. “Of course they would,” he muttered, calling to mind Knuckles’ ominous words about anyone seeking the Master Emerald out intending to use its power.

“It was all in vain, anyways,” Maria said with a light shrug. Her fingers restlessly roved over the tablecloth. “We gathered as much information as we could from where we landed. The entire island is rife with the chaotic power that fuels it, but we didn’t make it far into the island. After hours of travel, we still hadn’t made it to the Master Emerald when Knuckles confronted us.” She shook her head, golden curls fraying around her face. “He was furious,” she whispered. “He wanted us and all of our equipment gone. He was willing to use force, and if we hadn’t gone peacefully, I’m betting he would have destroyed what information we had gathered. We left with a gallery of pictures, a handful of samples of the land, and even more questions than answers. He didn’t trust anyone and especially didn’t trust our science.”

Inwardly, Shadow relaxed and said, “So you really were only there to do research.”

“Of course I was,” she replied, avoiding his gaze. “It’s not up to me what my cousin does.”

There was an extended beat of silence between them, Maria’s shadow stretching under the fluorescent lights, and then Maria suddenly added, “Clara’s going to have little George any day now. They had a false labor scare today.”

“False?” Shadow said in confusion. He’d never heard of a fake labor before. He thought when labor happened it just . . . happened. “Is that a good or bad thing?”

Maria chuckled softly. “A good thing, I think. She’ll have that baby in no time.” She glanced up at the clock and yawned, saying, “Well, I think I’m going to go on to bed. That way you can take a shower, you smelly hedgehog,” and she winked at him. Shadow just rolled his eyes, following her up the stairs. “Oh!” she added, “Walter’s bringing the girls over tomorrow so he can go grocery shopping. So don’t you run off. Rosie missed you today. Apparently she has big news for you.”

“Of course,” Shadow said, and he bid her goodnight as she went into her room. Then, he tuned into the bathroom full of lighthouses to clean up before bed.

*

“Shadow! Shadow, guess what? Guess what!”

Rosie was already talking before she even got out of the car. It was a pleasantly warm day that September, so Shadow and Maria were on the porch talking when the silver Audi pulled into the driveway. Rosie hopped out in a pair of jean shorts, knee-high pink and white striped socks, and a t-shirt that said “Future mad scientist” in lime green lettering. She darted up the steps, leaving Walter to help a highly pregnant Clara out of the car.

Shadow looked up, asking, “What is it, Rosie?”

His reflexes caught her when she threw herself forward and hugged him. “I made a best friend!” she squealed, the pitch making his ears flick. “His name is Kegan, and he likes Power Rangers just like I do! He also likes superheroes and he skateboards! Isn’t he cool?”

Unable to help it, Shadow’s lips quirked up at her eager babble. “I told you you’d find a friend,” Shadow told her.

Rosie giggled, “I sure did!” Then, she gasped, tugging on his arm, saying, “Shadow! You have to help me learn how to skate better! Look!”

The little girl ran back to the car and past her parents. Walter had two bags and Clara came slowly up the steps, Maria vacating her seat for the highly pregnant woman. Walter grinned at Shadow, saying, “I’m afraid you’ve got a big day on your hands, Shadow. It was all Rosie could talk about all day yesterday.”

Hesitantly, and casting a sideways glance at him, Shadow asked, “What do you mean?”

Walter looked over his shoulder, grinned, and jerked his thumb towards the car.

Shadow descended the steps to see that Rosie had thrown multiple pads out of the car. A black helmet with pink skulls on it sat on her head, and she pulled out—roller skates?

She held them up excitedly by their laces, hollering, “Look! Shadow, look, I’m going to learn how to skate better!” She plopped on her butt in the driveway, yanking off her shoes and shoving her feet in the matching skates, babbling, “Kegan said I could hang out with him and his friends at the skate park with him, but I don’t have a skateboard, but I DO have skates! He said the skates were cool too, so I’ve got to get better at skating so I don’t embarrass myself at the park. See, I’m the only girl, so I don’t want the guys to gang up on me, but I don’t think they REALLY will, they seemed cool, and I’m not super girly or anything.”

Amused at her gossiping, Shadow knelt down, helping her tie the laces tight. From the porch came the laugh of, “Rosie! You’ve got your helmet on backwards!”

Her blue eyes looked up, “I do?” She struggled with the snap for a moment before turning it around, and she said, “Oh!” when she realized how much more comfortable the helmet was. They got her outfitted in her knee and elbow pads, and Shadow tightened the helmet properly, making sure to ask, “Not too tight?”

“Nope!” Rosie tried to hop up, got her feet under her, and wobbled immediately. Instead, she ended up crawling to the car where she had a pair of fingerless gloves so she wouldn’t tear up her palms when she fell. She pulled them on and looked up when Walter approached, saying, “Daddy! Don’t I look cool?”

Walter chuckled and grinned at her, closing the car door. “You look great, Rosie! When I get done shopping, you’ll be an ace skater, won’t you?”

“Definitely!”

Rosie needed help weeble-wobbling her way out of the driveway so Walter could pull out, so Shadow let the girl clutch at his arm. Then, almost immediately, she denied the use of Shadow as a crutch, declaring, “I can do it by myself!” and beginning a very precarious totter across the driveway.

Vaguely, Shadow could hear Maria and Clara talking about something at work, and he walked slowly next to Rosie as she hobbled along, body pitching and falling on her hands multiple times. She might want to do it herself, but surely she wouldn’t mind some pointers? “Keeping your feet shoulder-width apart will help you keep your balance,” he told her as her butt again became the highest point of her body.

Rosie pushed herself to a standing position again, huffing with the effort and complained, “This feels so weird!”

“It’s not like walking,” Shadow told her as she struggled to get her feet to a wide enough position. “Keep your knees bent too. You want to stay low and wide so you stay stable.”

“Like this?” she asked. She giggled. “Feels weird.”

His lips quirked up at her. Chaos if she wasn’t cute. “Yeah,” he agreed, “just like that. Turn your toes out . . . And you’re not going to walk or else you won’t get anywhere. Push off with your toes. Side to side.”

“Side to go forward?” Rosie said in surprise. “Push . . .” With some thinking on her part, she did as told, and she finally went forward with noticeable improvement, and she squealed in surprise, wind-milling her arms and falling on her hands and knees. “Whoa! That worked so much better!” A small smile played at the edges of Shadow’s lips when she eagerly got back up, trying to find her rhythm. She weaved and seesawed, lurching more than once, but she stayed upright more often than not with proper form in her mind, though he could still hear her giggle under her breath, “Physics are weird . . .”

Content to help Rosie how to skate, Shadow walked about the driveway with her, periodically demonstrating for her benefit and excitement. She was just becoming proficient in moving on her own when they got a surprise visitor.

Shadow’s quills tensed at the sight of the Eggmobile, but the lack of robots with him eased his mind. Rosie pointed her finger up and squealed, “Great Uncle Ivo!” and promptly plopped on her butt again. On the porch, Maria left Clara’s side, frowning as the Eggmobile settled in the driveway, Eggman stepping out.

“Rosie!” he bellowed, and Shadow watched attentively as Rosie got back to her feet, hollering back, “Look! I can skate!” and skated right into the mad scientist. Eggman laughed, and Shadow stood uncertainly, wondering what he could possibly want.

“Ivo,” Maria said tentatively, frowning at him. “What are you doing here?”

He patted the top of Rosie’s head and grinned, saying evasively, “Well, can’t a man visit his family, Maria? Surely you wouldn’t begrudge me that?”

Her lips twisted, but without malice so far. “You’re not exactly a family man, Ivo,” she pointed out. “What’s on your agenda?”

“He DID come to my birthday party this year though!” Rosie said excitedly. She looked at Shadow, telling him, “He got me a beginner’s chemistry set! It said for ten year olds and up, and I was six, but Mom watched me, so it was okay.”

Eggman chuckled, chuffing Rosie’s shoulders, saying to her, “That’s because it’s meant for ten year olds with small brains, not six year old Robotniks with big brains!”

Rosie grinned back at him, agreeing, “It WAS pretty easy!”

Shadow’s gaze flickered at Eggman nonchalantly getting along with Rosie, and the sight of it was jarring. “Dr. Robotnik,” he finally cut in, “exactly why are you here? Make no mistake, after what you pulled with Maria, I will not assist you with anything anymore. If that’s why you’re here, you can save yourself the trouble and leave now.” The thought of Eggman coming to them for a favor burned in Shadow’s veins after lying to him for so long about Maria. As far as he was concerned, he could escort himself off the premises before Shadow gave in to the tempting urge to punch him right on his abnormally large nose.

“Oh, let bygones be bygones,” he relented. “But yes, I see I can’t pull anything over your eyes, can I? A little birdy in the rumor mill told me my dearest cousin was attacked by Chaos!”

Shadow didn’t bat a lash, but Maria frowned in exasperation, saying, “I’m almost afraid to ask how you know that.”

“Then please don’t ask, I’d hate to have to explain myself,” Eggman said with a wave of his palm. Rosie finally let go of his leg and roughly skated her way back to Shadow’s side. “And, I’ve come with a proposal!”

Shadow bristled. Maria hiked up a brow, repeating dubiously, “A proposal?”

“Certainly,” Eggman said with a small bow. “Chaos is bound to come back, and if he adheres to his usual pattern, he’ll have a Chaos Emerald on him. With Shadow’s help, I can take Chaos off of your hands. Get him out of your hair, if you will.”

“I told you already, Doctor,” Shadow snarled with a drip of threat, “I’m not helping you with anything.” Of course Eggman was just in it for the Chaos Emeralds. “I can drive off Chaos on my own.”

Eggman waggled his finger at him, saying, “Ah, maybe not, but you wouldn’t want Chaos to keep coming back and attacking our dearest Maria, would you?”

Maria’s eyes narrowed briefly. “You want to study it,” she called him out.

Eggman spread his arms in the afternoon sun, bursting, “Well of course I do! After all, I finally got my hands on a very promising project,” and he wiggled his brows at her, grinning unpleasantly, “and what better way to fix the flaws in it than to study the ancient god itself?”

Quills tensing at Eggman’s suggestive tone, Shadow barked, “Fine. If you want to study it for your Chaos project, be my guest.” However, if Shadow could weasel his way into getting one of the two Chaos Emeralds Chaos had taken from Angel Island . . . “If I fight him into submission, you’ll take Chaos off our hands?”

“As long as I get his Chaos Emerald,” Eggman persuaded him.

Shadow crossed his arms. “Fine then. It’s a deal, Doctor.”

“Always a pleasure doing business with you, Shadow!” Eggman said jauntily, a new spring in his step as he climbed back into the Eggmobile. “Maria, Shadow, take care of yourselves. And Rosie, I’ll be sure to get you a more complicated chemistry set next year!”

“Good!”

“And Clara—Oh boy, Clara, are you all right?”

On the porch, Clara was wincing, but she just waved him off. “I’m perfectly fine,” she told him, glancing at her watch again. “Just a contraction, but they’re not close enough to be alarming yet.”

“Oooh! You’ll tell me when you have that boy—George? I was there to hold my favorite great niece,” and he lifted his blue shades to wink at her, “so I’ll be there this time too!”

Rosie giggled. “I’m you’re only great niece!”

“Exactly!” Eggman roared with a laugh, starting up the Eggmobile and pulling into the sky. “Farewell, my fellow Robotniks! Until the baby comes or Chaos returns!” and he finally faded from sight.

There was a beat of silence, and then Rosie announced, “I like great Uncle Ivo. He’s weird.” She brightened, exclaiming, “And he’s a great scientist! I’ll be as good as him one day.”

Maria cast her a motherly glance, saying sternly, “I hope with much less world domination in mind, young lady.”

Rosie laughed, shaking her head and tottering closer to grab Shadow’s shoulder. “Oh, I don’t think he’s serious about all of that,” she said, straightening her helmet on her head. “Sonic is always there to ruin his plans, so I think he just wants to beat Sonic one day. It’s no fun losing all the time.” She paused thoughtfully and added, “I think he could make a lot of money off amusement parks if he put his mind to it. Hey! Why doesn’t Sonic come around anymore?” She turned to Shadow, saying, “I want to see you two race for real!”

Clara motioned for Maria, so the elderly lady moved back to the porch, leaving Shadow with Rosie. He couldn’t help the natural reaction of crossing his arms and hiking up his chin, saying haughtily, “I don’t know why you’d want to see that. Clearly there’s no competition about who’s faster.”

Rosie giggled and began to try and skate again, so Shadow kept up by walking along with her. “I think it’d be cool,” she said, “since Gramma had to make Sonic’s shoes combustible proof!”

Stunned by the new information, Shadow hiked up a brow. “Maria made Sonic’s shoes?”

Her pert little nose wrinkled. “Well, I guess she didn’t MAKE them herself, she had other people to do that. But yeah, she did all the science behind them! They’re light weight, friction resistant—” and she leaned forward with a whisper, “so he doesn’t burn them up—and almost indestructible. Gramma based their blueprints off of your shoes, but more . . . Sonic-y, I guess. He can’t use Chaos energy like you can.” She paused and snickered with a smirk that made Shadow proud as she said, “I bet Sonic doesn’t even know Gramma made his shoes. He doesn’t seem very scientifically minded.”

That comment actually made Shadow give a barking laugh. His mouth turned up smugly, “Well, you’re probably right about that.”

Rosie skated along roughly, lips pursed up in thought as she unwittingly did the perfect impression of Maria thinking. Finally, she murmured, “I wonder what it’d be like if you and Sonic switched shoes . . .”

Shadow crossed his arms defensively and side-eyed her hard. “Don’t even think about it, Rosie, because it’s not happening.”

She just bit her lip and her eyes lit up surreptitiously, but before anything more could be said, Maria called from the porch, “Rosie! I’m taking Clara to the hospital again! Are you coming with us?”

Rosie gasped, yelping, “Yes! Yes, I’m coming! Is George coming?” She plopped down in the middle of the driveway, hurriedly fumbling to take off her skates, so Shadow helped her since they were in such a hurry. The garage door opened as Maria came back out with her keys.

“Well, I hope he’s coming this time,” Clara said with a wince, huffing as she reached for the baby bag. “I think I’d rather get it over with at this point.”

Shadow had barely gotten Rosie’s shoes tied before she ran up to the porch, bursting, “No, Mama! I’ve got the bag! I’ve got it!” and Clara was forced to surrender it. She groaned to her feet with the help of Maria, and Shadow, feeling extremely out of his depth, picked up Rosie’s skates. Once Clara was in the front seat, Maria shut the car door and said to him, “Shadow, Walter should be back any minute now, could you stay here and tell him we’ve taken Clara to the hospital?”

“Of course,” he said immediately as Rosie hopped in, still decked out in her skating gear.

“Thank you so much dear,” she said and she stooped to give him a quick goodbye kiss on his head. Shadow waved as the black car pulled out and disappeared down the street. He wondered briefly if it was going to be another false labor or if she would actually have the baby this time. Putting Rosie’s skates away, Shadow sat down on the porch to wait for Walter to get home, eventually sent the panicking man on his way to the hospital, and chose to stay at home instead of going into the sterile environment.

If she had the baby, he could see him tomorrow.


	7. Dysfunctional Family

**“You want a revelation**

**You want to get it right**

**But it's a conversation**

**I just can't have tonight**

**You want a revelation, some kind of resolution**

**Tell me what you want me to say”**

**No Light __ Florence and the Machine**

  


 

*

Shadow slept through the night, went on a morning run, and came back just in time for the telephone to ring.

“Hello?”

“Shadow!” Rosie shouted in his ear. He flinched. “Guess what? I’m a big sister! It took him all night to get out!”

“Sounds like fun,” he replied, trying to hide his sarcasm. It must have worked because Rosie didn’t hear it.

“You should come over here and see him! Besides, Gramma says she’d feel better with you here if she has to call Great Uncle Ivo. You know, I think he likes babies to an extent.”

Shadow rolled his eyes even though she couldn’t see it. He was sure Eggman already had his eyes on the place. “Sure, Rosie,” he told her. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Okay! I’m timing you!”

She hung up, so Shadow hung up the phone, walked outside, and skated quickly to her house, finding both cars he knew in the driveway. He walked up to the door and knocked, and Rosie flung open the door with wide eyes. “That was way faster than a minute,” she said, but then, she grabbed his hand, dragging him inside where he could smell bacon. “Come here! Look! Look at my baby brother!”

Shadow followed her into the living room where Clara absolutely glowed, holding a small bundle. She smiled at him and extended her arms, letting him see, and Shadow looked down and saw a tiny, pudgy baby in the middle of a giant yawn. There was a small thatch of brown hair on his head.

One of his ears twitched when he cocked his head, and he ventured, “So this is George?”

“Isn’t he cute!” Rosie exclaimed, bouncing on her heels. “Do you wanna hold him?”

Shadow’s quills twitched defensively. Hold him? “I’d really rather—”

“Rosie!” Walter’s voice carried from the kitchen, “Breakfast is ready!”

She gasped and scurried off, so hungry that even newborn babies couldn’t stop her. Maria popped her head out of the kitchen, bags heavy under her eyes even though she smiled brightly. “Hello, Shadow!”

He waved, and Walter came from the kitchen, beaming at his wife and baby boy. “All right, sweetheart, breakfast is ready for you to satiate your hunger! Hand me George—who’s my strong boy?”

Clara laughed at him, and then, she looked at Shadow, saying, “Oh, Shadow, could you hold on to George for us? Walter hasn’t eaten anything either.”

He resisted the urge to gape, but his spines stiffened as he stuttered, “I—I’m not—I’ve never . . . HELD a baby. I don’t—I don’t know how.”

Clara giggled nearly the same giggle that Rosie did. “Here, it’s easy. The most important thing is to support his head, because he can’t do it yet.”

Before Shadow could properly brace himself, he found George passed from Walter, back to Clara, and then into his arms. Awkwardly cradling the baby that squirmed in his arms, Shadow looked up helplessly at Walter who just grinned at him. He clapped his shoulder, saying, “You’re a natural, Shadow!”

“Oh, he’s hardly natural,” Clara said, with a laugh so stifled it was almost a snort. She looked back at Shadow who stood stiffly, saying, “Will you be all right, Shadow? I just fed him, so he should drop off to sleep soon.”

“I’ll be fine,” he replied reflexively even though inwardly he was a mess. Walter and Clara went to the kitchen table and joined Rosie and Maria in eating, so Shadow was left standing with the baby. He looked down at George who squirmed some more, so he tried to get both arms more secure under the baby, all without disturbing the precarious rest of his head in the crook of his arm. Feeling absolutely out of his league, Shadow managed to maneuver around and sit on the sofa.

His ears flicked when he heard the giggles at the table surrounding the fact that he looked cute holding the baby, so Shadow focused his attention down on his charge that kicked restlessly. Did she say he was supposed to be falling asleep? The worst thing he needed was for George to wake up and start screaming. That was the most of what babies did, right? Eat, poop, scream, and sleep?

It was honestly really quite ridiculous how helpless newborn humans were. Awkwardly waiting for George to sleep, the baby gave a wide yawn again and his eyes opened, blinking curiously at Shadow.

His heart panged. Oh no. On no, he had the bluest, biggest bluest eyes he’d seen since Rosie and Maria and Chaos if that didn’t do things to his heart. George had managed to get one of his arms free of his blanket, and his little hand flailed until it made contact with Shadow’s white tuft of chest fur, his fingers balling tightly and refusing to let go. Shadow twitched at the touch and gently tried to tug his grip off. When gently failed, he tried harder to get George to let go, but the boy refused, so Shadow gave up with a heaving sigh, looking at his face again.

He didn’t start crying. Instead, George just stared at him, big blue eyes blinking sleepily as him as he fought off his drowsiness. Shadow stared back, cowed at how breakable and helpless he was that he couldn’t even hold up his own head yet. So helpless and weak, and yet, he was strong? His hand had a vice-grip on his chest fur, so why couldn’t he even hold his head up? George stared at Shadow until his eyelids finally settled closed, and it dawned on Shadow that George had indeed finally fallen asleep on him, trusting him even though he didn’t look at all like him.

George was cute. Yes, that was the word, and oh Chaos, why was he getting attached already? He was just a baby. It didn’t matter how . . . cute . . . and chubby . . . and innocent he was. It had to be his eyes. Shadow was a sucker for big blue eyes, so maybe big blue baby eyes were his kryptonite. Okay, it didn’t matter what his kryptonite was, just as long as he could protect this tiny baby. Yes, he wouldn’t let anything hurt this precious child.

Sensing someone’s gaze on him, Shadow looked up and saw Maria unabashedly smiling at him. Muzzle flushing, Shadow tried to hand George to her, forgetting that the boy’s hand was still gripping his chest fur. “Maria, what do I do?” he asked, helplessly tugging at his hand. “He won’t let go.”

“You’ll hold still so I can take a picture,” Maria said with a laugh, holding up the camera she had been hiding from him.

“Maria . . .”

The camera clicked as she took a picture of a very disgruntled and embarrassed hedgehog. “Aw, don’t look so sullen, Shadow, it’s cute!” She did however, with a sleight of her hand, easily make George let go of him and relieve him of his burden. Shadow relaxed the second she took him away. She sat down next to him on the couch, gnawing on her bottom lip. “Um, Shadow, you do realize that I had a husband once upon a time, right?”

“Of course,” he said with a nod, wondering how she thought that he might have missed it.

She nodded her head nervously, stammering, “Well, um. He’s going to be here today. You know, to see the baby. It’s his one day off, so he has to come by today.”

Shadow frowned. “What’s wrong?” Was she worried he wasn’t going to like him?

Maria rested George against her chest, patting his back as she explained, “Well, the divorce didn’t go over very well . . . And, I mean, that’s not really an issue now, he’s invited to things like this and holidays, but . . . Um . . .”

“But what?”

A bang on the door made Maria jump, someone hollered, “Maria! Where’s my great nephew?” and Eggman opened up the door even before he was invited in. Shadow bristled, rocketing to his feet defensively when the mad scientist suddenly showed up with no invite. What was he doing here? “There he is!” Eggman exclaimed loudly as Maria quickly shushed him.

“Ivo! He’s sleeping!”

She rocked, soothing the baby that had squirmed in his sleep. “Oh, of course, of course,” Eggman said, seeming to fill the room with his belly and his presence. Shadow stood, moving to the side as Eggman came into the living room, speaking probably the quietest he’d ever heard him, “Well, someone has a good head full of hair! That’s good, keep him from going bald as early as I did!” and Eggman chortled at his own joke.

When Eggman beckoned for George, Maria unwillingly surrendered him, but the mad doctor did know how to hold a baby much better than Shadow and even cooed, finger poking his soft cheeks. Maria bit her lip, saying, “Ivo, I thought we agreed you were coming tomorrow.”

He waved his hand, hardly noting her. Shadow frowned, sensing . . . “Well, I decided I might as well come today. All my work has to be put on hold until I catch Chaos, so I may as well visit today! I wasn’t doing anything anyways. Clara! Walter! You two make one good-looking child, you know that?”

Clara tried to hush him as he began speaking loudly again, saying, “Thank you, Uncle Ivo.” Eggman brushed by them, grabbing some bacon from the kitchen table before plopping down comfortably in a vacant chair.

“Well,” he said, taking a bite and speaking with his mouth full, “babies are cute and all until they start pooping and screaming. Then you can have him back!”

He cackled, and Rosie came up in front of him, stomping her foot on the carpet. “Great Uncle Ivo, shh!” she stressed to him in a huff. “You’ll wake George up! You have to be very quiet.”

“Yes, yes, of course, Rosie, I hadn’t forgotten,” and he quite contentedly lapsed into silence, munching on the bacon.

Shadow frowned at Eggman’s uncanny . . . cheerfulness. A tense cloud fell over the family, and Maria said firmly, “Ivo, we planned to have you come by tomorrow for a reason. We’re already expecting other company any minute now,” and she glanced anxiously at the clock as she said so.

“Hm? Well that’s fine, I don’t mind. I’ll be on my best behavior. Come on now, take a picture! I’ll pin it up in my headquarters!” Clara and Maria exchanged meaningful glances as Maria took a picture of the mad scientist holding his sleeping great nephew. Unease prickled along Shadow’s spine, and he thought it was more than just her ex husband coming to visit.

Finally, Maria clenched her fingers around her camera and said plainly, “Ivo, Abraham is coming to see George today. It’s his day off. He’ll be here any minute.”

Abraham . . . faintly, in the back of Shadow’s mind, he knew the name, though he couldn’t pinpoint exactly how. However, the name caused Eggman to cackle and nearly wake the baby, causing Clara to take George back and hush him. “Abraham!” Eggman said with relish, “Of course. I’ll be absolutely charming if he is, Maria,” and he cackled again, looking at Shadow. Spines stiffening at the look, Shadow stared down Eggman as the mad scientist waggled his brows, asking, “Does he know about Shadow? It’s going to be a fantastic surprise when they meet again. I’ve got to be here for those fireworks, Maria.”

So he DID know him. Rapidly, Shadow’s mind flung back to his checkered past, trying to figure out the puzzle of people that he could possibly know. He couldn’t possibly be one of the scientists that had experimented on him; they would be far too old. He’d have to be younger—

A sharp knock pounded on the door. Maria froze for a minute, and it was Walter that moved across the room and to the door. Then, it suddenly dawned on Shadow EXACTLY who the only person it could be.

The door swung open, and in the doorway standing proud and tall was Abraham Towers. His dress slacks and crisp button up were freshly pressed, and before Walter could even welcome him in, his one brown and one green eyes cut across the room, first to the noticeable Eggman, and then to Shadow. Bristling at the look in his eyes, Shadow clenched his fists and hiked up his chin, daring him to question his presence in the Robotnik household. Shadow’s jaw locked, and intense dislike filled him at the sight of the man that still, STILL looked down his nose at him.

_You shouldn’t hang out with that experiment, Maria. It’s just a ratty Mobian, and it’s meant to do what we tell it, so I don’t see why you feel like you need to be its friend._

Shadow’s blood boiled. He knew exactly who that man was; that snot-nosed, whiny, call-my-daddy brat that—

“You didn’t tell me you were having . . . GUESTS over, Clara.”

His quills twitched noticeably in anger, and Clara said firmly, “Of course, Dad. Family is family.”

Shadow blinked at Towers, and Clara’s name for him—DAD—sunk in slowly. Whipping his head accusingly to Maria, his knuckles whitened when she wouldn’t look at him. She had KNOWN. She had known exactly who that boy was, how he treated him, the things he said about him, and she—she MARRIED the man!

Towers still hadn’t fully stepped inside the house even though Walter was still holding the door open for him. His cold eyes were fixed on Shadow as he enunciated, “HE is hardly family.”

“Neither are you,” Shadow snapped. “Or was the divorce a part of my imagination?”

The words leapt from him before he could stop them. Towers’ face hardened and Walter frowned at them, saying sharply, “All right you two. You’re both here to see George, not fight, and if you can’t behave, then you can both stay out of this house. Everyone here is family, whether you like it or not.”

Shadow crossed his arms, refusing to move from his spot in the living room. Towers stared at him for a moment longer and then deliberately met the challenge, stepping into the house with him. Walter eyed him as he went past, but Towers chose to ignore Shadow to the best of his ability, coming to Clara’s side and putting an openly affectionate kiss on her head. For some reason, it rankled Shadow’s fur.

“You kids made a fine-looking boy,” Towers told her, and Clara flushed with pleasure, not much able to put a dent on the new mother’s happiness. She handed over George, letting Towers hold him, and Shadow had never felt jealousy and protection of the like that surged through him seeing the man holding him.

Shadow held perfectly still in the middle of the room, controlling his temper as Towers asserted his place among the family as easily as breathing. Rosie came over to his side to see George again, saying to him, “Isn’t he cute, Grandpa? I’m a big sister now. I’ve got a lot of responsibility.”

For a second, Shadow didn’t hear Towers’ response to Rosie, too jealous to see straight. He snapped his gaze back to Maria when she moved across the room to take a picture of them, but she stoutly avoided his accusing glare. Eggman just looked between Shadow and Towers, vastly enjoying himself.

“Well, isn’t this a cozy reunion?” Eggman said falsely amicable. “Shadow and G.U.N. commander, back together again! Though, I guess the circumstances are a little different this time.”

Shadow’s spines flexed aggressively. His crimson eyes shot back to Maria, the red pools practically boiling as he spat at her, “He’s the G.U.N. commander?”

Maria’s eyes slid to the floor, and Towers said firmly, “Yes, I am.” He then turned to Eggman, saying, “I have half a mind to arrest you right here and now and stop your mad science before it starts.”

Clara’s face grew pained. “Dad, please—”

Eggman simply waved him off, saying, “Oh, let’s put aside our differences for now, Commander Towers, we’re here for this wonderful baby boy! Isn’t he cute? I like to imagine when Shadow was that small because it’s so hard to believe!”

The eldest Robotnik cackled to himself when Shadow and Towers cast equally incinerating glares to one another. Walter and Clara traded worried glances as the tensions mounted with Eggman’s well-placed words, and Rosie shrank back, sensing the animosity. “That’s where your wrong, Dr. Ivo Robotnik,” Towers said with a leer, “Shadow was always made to be a killing machine, even from birth.”

Shadow’s hackles rose, and his lip began to sneer with distaste, but he instinctively looked to Maria for help—for something. At this point, he didn’t care if it was her telling him to be the bigger man, but she didn’t look up, she didn’t speak up for him—she didn’t do ANYTHING.

“Oh, but the ARK was such a long time ago,” Eggman drawled easily, gauging the heat spitting from man and hedgehog. “Even Maria has gotten over G.U.N. agents shooting her, so I don’t see why—”

“Yes,” Shadow interrupted with a snarl, blood pounding in his head, “marry a man from G.U.N. when they were the ones that almost got you killed!”

Towers leaned forward dangerously, George still crooked in the corner of his arm. “It was mad science that got Maria shot!” he accused him. “G.U.N. was brought in to fix the problem experiments like YOU created!”

“That’s enough!” Clara said sharply as George woke and began to cry. She took her son back, tears stinging her eyes as she ordered, “I want you all out of my house! Get out!”

She grabbed Rosie’s hand, the toddler looking even smaller than before, taking her and George deeper into the house and away from them. Eggman hummed pleasantly to himself as Walter pointed to the door, saying, “You heard her. Out. All three of you.”

Towers stood ramrod straight and leered down at the shorter man. “That’s some way to speak to me,” he started.

“And that’s some way to behave as a guest in my house,” Walter cut him off. “All of you.”

Eggman stood too, saying haughtily, “Well, I don’t think so! I’ve been on my best behavior, Walter! It was Commander Towers and Shadow that have been fighting.”

Walter began, “You know you’ve been antagonizing them—”

“Towers has been downright ugly to me ever since he stepped inside the house!” Shadow exclaimed in his defense. Did absolutely no one care how Towers treated him like the scum of the earth? A ringing began in his ears as Towers glared across the room at him.

“You’re just a dirty experiment gone wrong!” Towers snapped at him. “You were supposed to be blindly obedient, not a little rat with a mouth!”

The prickling in the room rose, and Shadow opened his mouth with a retort when his ears twitched, hearing a low rumbling. Walter stepped in front of Towers, shouting, “That’s enough! Abraham, you’ve over-extended your stay. That goes for you too, Eggman, Shadow. All of you, get out!”

Shadow cast his eyes about, sensing something, and when his eyes pinned on Eggman again, it hit him like a freight train. “You!” he snapped, pointing at Eggman. “You’ve got a Chaos Emerald on you!” The color drained from Shadow’s face when the rumbling—the plumbing—grew louder and louder. Dread grew in his belly when he put it together. “You used Maria and the Emerald as bait! You led it here—!”

The plumbing in the kitchen sink burst loudly, spraying water all over the kitchen, and Maria shrieked, running to the opposite side of the adjacent dining room as liquid poured in the room. “There you are!” Eggman exclaimed with glee, and he yanked out a remote, pressing a button as Chaos surged up—and up.

Shadow ran forward and planted his feet protectively in front of Maria and Walter, head craned back as Chaos formed from the water, taller than the average human and hulking wider than a sumo wrestler. A brand new endoskeleton filled both of its arms, and its hammerhead skull was shifted forward, its brain still bobbing brightly.

“Get out of here!” Shadow shouted at the humans, eyes flicking up to the ancient god. He saw the purple and red Chaos Emeralds embedded in the endoskeleton of each fisted pincer before they slammed down on top of him.

The wood flooring splintered under the weight of the attack, and Shadow grunted, spots dancing before his eyes. If he thought it had hit hard before, that was nothing compared to what it could do now! Eggman quite calmly opened the door for Maria, saying, “This way, dear, we’ll have him contained in a minute—”

“Robotnik!” Towers shouted at him, yanking out the gun holstered on his back hip. “You brought this creature back after it destroyed Station Square? Madman!”

Chaos growled, its hulking body lumbering around to where Eggman and Maria were heading into the front yard. Walter hurried into the back to his family, Towers blocking the way into the hallway, but Chaos ignored the commander even when several bullets sank harmlessly into its body. Shaking the stars from his head, Shadow leapt over Chaos and darted out the door, knowing exactly who the monster would be targeting.

Turning to face his adversary, Shadow lunged forward with splayed hands. Chaos growled, green eyes blazing before every single feature of the monster melted away. With a gush, a wave of water jettisoned forth, and the surf crashed over him, swamping him into the street. Coughing on water, Shadow craned his head back, stunned to see the ancient god lift up, water collecting back into an aerial sphere and come hurtling down.

Dodging the crushing attack, Shadow balled up and spun into the orb, spines slicing harmlessly through the water. To the side, Eggman shouted, "That's right, Shadow! Keep him occupied! I'm almost ready!"

Shadow snarled, shaking water from his quills as Chaos congealed into a vaguely humanoid shape again, claws and hulking. Seeing the vulnerable brain, Shadow spun into a quick spin dash and attacked from the front. His momentum stopped abruptly when he collided with a shield made of Chaos energy that rang low as a gong when he struck it. Landing roughly on his feet, Shadow crossed his arms just in time for claw to crush into his chest, sending him flying past Maria and Eggman and into the ground.

Grunting and skidding, Shadow's fingers dug into the grass as he forced himself to stop and ran back into the fray. He attacked with another useless spin dash, annoyance spiking hot when the shield blocked his way again. He narrowly avoided a jettison of powerful water.

"Doctor!" he shouted as he dodged another watery claw seeped in Chaos energies. "If you're going to do something, do it now!"

Seeking to use his speed to distract the god, Shadow darted behind Chaos and attacked from a blind spot, but the god was almost equally quick now, blocking his attack easily. Angrily, Shadow lunged beneath a slinging claw and spun dashed hard and fast, striking the god's vulnerable brain. Chaos screeched and melted into a flood, crashing over Shadow again.

Catching another lungful of water, Shadow coughed up the liquid and suffered another powerful blow that rattled his ribs. Chest heaving for air and soaking wet, Shadow growled, crimson eyes spitting fire as Eggman hollered, "Over here, Shadow! Bait it in here!"

Enraged that Eggman would dare ask him to bait Chaos closer to Maria, Shadow balled up and dove around Chaos' attack again, spines spinning lethally. Instead of the brain, Shadow instead struck at the shoulder of the endoskeleton, and his spines found purchase. Chaos shrieked when Shadow tore through his arm, splitting the water and severing the arm with the red Chaos Emerald from its body. Snatching the emerald from the dissipating water, Shadow's skates burned as he swerved closer to Eggman and Maria. Chaos was shrunk down now, lopsided with only one arm holding tightly to its purple Chaos Emerald. Its other arm formed out of water, and it roared and balled up again, seeking to crush Shadow beneath it.

Eggman waved his hands, "Here, Shadow! Here!"

Streaking back across the front lawn, Chaos hot on his tail, Shadow leapt up past something mechanical, and Eggman cackled, "Yes! Yes! Gotcha!" and a surge of electricity nearly scorched his fur when the Chaos god began screaming.

Planting himself in front of Maria, sucking wind and dripping wet, Shadow looked up to see Chaos in the throes of voltage that made the water god quiver and writhe, releasing its hold on the purple Chaos Emerald. Skidding beneath it all, Shadow grabbed it too, retreating as the two pylons extended into an orb, locking air-tight around Chaos. Caught in a transparent balled cage, the electricity stopped briefly so it wouldn't cause lasting damage to Eggman's new subject of interest. Chaos collapsed into a formless puddle.

For a second, all was silent except for Shadow’s ragged breathing. Eggman hummed to himself, using his remote to cause the orb to shrink in size until it was no bigger than a basketball, squeezing Chaos into a small, portable space. Then, Shadow whirled on him with a black leer.

“Get out of here.”

Eggman at least had the decency to step back at the threat dripping from Shadow’s voice, but he just said, “And again, we make an excellent team, Shadow, but if you want me to leave, I do believe those Chaos Emeralds are mine.”

His fists clenched around them, so furious he quivered. He threw the purple one at Eggman, snapping, “Here! Now leave!”

Eggman just barely caught the projectile, and the Eggmobile floated over to him. His moustache bristled as he said hotly, “I don’t think so, Shadow! That red Chaos Emerald is mine too! Now hand it over, or I’ll take it from you myself!”

“You said you wanted the one Chaos Emerald Chaos had,” Shadow spat, “and now you’ve got it! This one is mine!” He stepped forward aggressively, spines flexing, and his movement caused Maria to make a move to get in between them.

“Shadow—”

He ignored her, growling, “Doctor, you’re lucky I’m civil right now. You put this entire family in danger all for the sake of capturing that monster!” Then, his octave dipped, velvet voice purring, “Get out now, Doctor, or I promise I’ll do more than lasting damage to just your machines.”

The red Chaos Emerald twinkled ominously in Shadow’s hand, causing Eggman’s face to twist into an ugly sneer. “Fine!” he shouted back, stepping into the Eggmobile and pocketing the purple Chaos Emerald. “I have my prize. You’ll regret crossing me, Shadow!”

Still as a snake poised to strike, Shadow watched Eggman carefully as the Eggmobile moved out of sight, towing the powerless Chaos with him. He watched them go for a second in the afternoon, and finally, a small voice broke the quiet.

“Shadow—”

He jerked away when her hand tried to touch him. “Don’t touch me,” he hissed at her, ears flexing back and a fang peeking out. Maria recoiled, and unable to reconcile how the day had gone, exactly who was inside the house, and Maria’s lack of a defense, Shadow scowled and left at top speed.

His adrenaline was still rushing. His face felt hot with fever, and he refused to believe that his flush was because he was so hurt at Maria’s betrayal. Towers. COMMANDER TOWERS. His rage piqued again, and Shadow snarled, ripping across the countryside at his top speed, trying to put as much distance between him and Maria as physically possible.

_Ha! Look at him struggle. Isn’t he supposed to be the Ultimate? Ultimate failure!_

With an annoyed flick of his ears, Shadow tried to shake the mean words away. He wasn’t a child anymore, and neither was Towers. The words might have hurt then, but not anymore. Tearing across the countryside and through cities, Shadow ran and ran from his past that had already overtaken him.

_You got lucky this time, experiment! I hope next time G.U.N.’s tests make you eat lead!_

Shadow dug in his toes, straining to go faster. Legs pumping and skates causing flickers of fire to scorch the grass behind him, Shadow ground his jaw. His fists tightened.

_Well, well. That last creation of ours nearly got you that time, didn’t it? I wonder how easy it would be to turn off your life support right now._

Shadow seethed. He knew that wretch and exactly how he had gone from petty to a mild threat when he was weak. Shadow bared his teeth, breath sucking between his teeth as if he could feel himself dying from a mere flick of a switch.

_Exciting isn’t it? To have your life in the palm of my hand. I don’t think I’d ever tire of watching you squirm._

And then he turned it off and on a subsequent two more times. And Maria didn’t believe him when he told her about it, refusing to believe little Abraham Towers could be so cruel. Shadow tore through the jungle as the sun began to set, turning the sky bloody red and orange. Of course, it went without saying Shadow had given Towers his own fair share of black eyes and bruises, and terrifying him to the point he’d actually peed on himself. But he never had the pleasure of threatening the boy with death the way he had him.

Fuming, Shadow came to an abrupt halt at the edge of a plateau. Breathing sharply from the strenuous run that had nearly broken the sound barrier, Shadow stared at the sight of Angel Island. Out of everywhere in the world, this had to be the last place he would have expected to be. He knew in his heart where he would have liked to be, but the betrayal still smarted, so he sat down at the edge and struggled to reign in his temper.

The waves were rough, crashing in white froths against the cliff side. Shadow watched them ebb out and come rolling back in, shattering over the rocks. Even from high up where he sat, the sea sprayed a fine mist over his hot face, cooling him. Though his anger smoldered, the rhythmic beat of the waves against the rocky shore soothed him. Taking deep breaths, Shadow sought to relax, and his eyes lingered over the unsettled sea, finding solace in the peaceful sound of nature.

The sun dipped lower until its crest disappeared under the distant line of the sea. The world plunged into darkness until the stars began to peek out, twinkling above him. And the more he waited for his anger to abate, the longer and longer he sat there on the cliff side. And the more he sat at the cliff side, the deeper and deeper the night darkened until he knew he had to get home regardless of if he was still angry or not.

Standing and skating off, Shadow returned to the little yellow house in the Melrose subdivision. He stood in the yard a moment, looking at the house he called home, and he hoped Maria was asleep when he pushed the door open.

Of course she stayed up for him.

She had a cup of cold caf between her clenched hands, and she looked up from the kitchen table when he walked in. She stood abruptly, bursting, “Shadow—!” and fell silent, biting nervously on her bottom lip.

He thought he had a lid on things. But as he shut the door behind him with a kick of his heel, Shadow knew he was far from civil yet. Choosing to ignore her instead of running the risk of saying something he would regret, Shadow headed for the stairs.

“Shadow, wait! I can explain!”

His quills twitched, and unbidden he stopped at her words. He turned his profile away from her, knotting up the pain in his heart. He didn’t speak a word.

The silence welcomed her to explain herself even if the walls around Shadow’s heart wouldn’t believe anything she said. The pregnant moment stretched until Shadow moved towards the stairs, and she suddenly started, “Shadow, you have to understand, after the ARK I didn’t have anything left. I—”

“What, and Abraham of all people could give you something?” he snapped bitterly, throwing his hand out. Now that he had spoken, it all came tumbling out as if he couldn’t stop it, “Maria, you know how he treated me!”

“I know!” she said back, wringing her hands. “And what if he could have given me something?”

“Abraham Towers?” Shadow drawled sarcastically. “Exactly what could you have ever seen in HIM? That brat who always got us in trouble when we sneaked around to even have peace to ourselves? Who always harassed me, kicked me, spit on me, urged his dearest father to make a machine that might actually kill me?”

“Shadow,” Maria said with a small flinch, “you don’t understand! After the ARK both Abraham and I were different, and—”

“And what?” Shadow scoffed, the emotions suddenly pouring out of him with the only person he trusted his emotions with—the only one that had ever had the chance to fling his emotions back at his feet. “You expect me to understand that Abraham suddenly changed? He hasn’t, Maria! You saw the way he looked at me in there! You heard the way he spoke to me!”

She drew herself up suddenly, saying firmly, “Yes, I know how he treated you, Shadow, but I know how you treated him too. You both met violence with violence and anger with anger.”

The lights above the kitchen table cast their shadows ominously about them, Maria’s standing like an oasis of darkness between them. Shadow bristled, trying and failing to resist the urge to shout as he said, “That prick would have walked all over me and you know it, Maria!” He took an aggressive step towards her, slashing his hand down and biting out, “You only saw the aftermath of it all, Maria! When I was out in that arena fighting for my life, hearing the things they said about me, enduring it all on my own until I came back to you, it was either I fought back or gave up!”

A flicker of pain passed over Maria’s face, and she bit her lip, saying gentler, “Shadow, that’s not—I thought this was about Abraham?”

“It is!” Shadow snarled. Frustrated, he turned away from her, pacing into the living room and back, trying to find the road his rabbit trail led him away from. “It is! Abraham? That bastard was just like the rest of them, Maria! How could you—ABRAHAM. Little two-eyed two-face! Out of everyone in the world you picked the worst of them!”

Her lips pressed, and her chin jutted, saying sternly, “I don’t think it’s really your place to choose who was good for me or not, Shadow. I know what I did—”

Shadow interrupted her with a harsh laugh, shaking his head. “Of course,” he said bitterly, “I should have known! You always picked him, always . . .”

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh don’t act so innocent, Maria!” he spat hotly, the blood and Chaos energies rushing through him. She flinched back at his blazing red eyes. “Whose side did you always take? Abraham! You always sided with that creep!”

“I did not!” she cried in her own defense, hurt tears pricking her eyes at his tone. “You know that’s not true, Shadow!”

“Oh do I?” he sneered, refusing to give her an inch.

Her fathomless blue eyes jumped as she tried again, “Shadow, you weren’t even here! You don’t know what I was feeling—If you would just listen—”

“No! I don’t want to hear about Abraham! I’m sick and tired of him!”

“You can’t just pretend this issue isn’t real!”

“I’m not!” Shadow shouted, whipping around to face her again. “I just can’t believe that you of all people would do something like that!”

“It’s the truth!” she gasped. “Do you want me to lie?”

“No!” he cried, “that’s not it at all! I just want—”

“Then what is it?”

“It’s your fault! I didn’t—”

_“What do you want me to say?”_

Shadow stopped short, chest heaving and staring at Maria as if he’d never seen her before. Her shadow separated them like a dark and malevolent ocean, and suddenly, she looked older to him than she ever had before. The tendons in her neck strained as she repeated helplessly, “Just—tell me what you want me to say! You won’t let me say anything. You won’t let me say anything and what I can get out isn’t good enough for you. So what do you want me to say, Shadow?”

They stood across from each other, exhausted from their whipping emotions, and Shadow’s ears flattened back in shame. He looked away from her, unable to watch her tears follow the wrinkles of her skin. For the first time since he had known Maria, it was like there was no light in her blue eyes, and already he missed the sparkle she always had. Instead, tired and hurt, Shadow just shook his head.

“I don’t want you to say anything.”

He avoided her gaze and looked at the ground as he went upstairs, too drained to do anything more. Maria stood in thunderstruck silence, her lower lip trembling as she absorbed the brunt of his anger for the first time in her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's the newest chapter of the story! I swear these idiots are literally the epitome of the dysfunctional family with the crazy cousin, adopted son, and angry dad that RUIN Thanksgiving! ^.^ Anyways, I hope you all are enjoying it so far. I've got big plans, so stick with me if you will, and drop a review!


	8. Picking Up the Broken Pieces

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“I try to speak to you everyday

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But each word we spoke, the wind blew away

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Could these walls come crumbling down?

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I want to feel my feet on the ground

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And leave behind this prison we share

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Step into the open air”

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Into the Open Air __ Julie Fowlis

When Shadow descended the stairs the next morning, he caught Maria with her keys in hand and her foot halfway into the garage. Her face flared bright red, and she looked away, saying to the doorknob, "Good morning, Shadow."

Aggravated that she had resorted to sneaking out like she was twelve years old again, Shadow just said, "I'll meet you there," and headed towards the door.

"Wait—What?"

Ears twitching with annoyance, Shadow sucked a deep breath through his nose and told the floor, "I thought I promised to help you with your research?"

Maria bit her lip, admitting, "Yes . . . I just thought . . ."

"Arguing doesn't change anything," Shadow interrupted her, keeping to his promise even if he was frustrated. "Let's go."

He left the house before she could say anything more, and that Monday morning was a very, very quiet one. Maria gave small waves towards her coworkers while Shadow didn't give the slightest inclination that they existed. They rode the elevator up to the correct floor and walked down the hall to her personal lab.

Things proceeded in silence, each little noise grating to Shadow's sensitive ears. The popping caps, tearing plastic, and the snap of her gloves reminded him all too much of the ARK and its sterile testing labs. His ears folded back and perked up at the small whisper of metal on metal. Maria approached with the syringe, shaved a tiny bit of his elbow fur away, cleansed the area, and lifted the needle. Her hand trembled.

Finally, she pulled away, saying nervously, "Shadow, you don't have to do this unless—"

"I really want to," he finished for her. He glanced up to her briefly before looking away. "I said I would do it," he said, "and I don't go back on my promises. It's fine."

Her hand still trembled as she lifted the syringe, from what he couldn't tell, but her grip eventually steadied and the prick barely hurt when she drew samples of his blood. They sat quietly in the lab, Shadow trying his best to ignore his thoughts, but they kept creeping back in and gaining his attention, waving and screaming and flapping about Maria not deserving his cold shoulder and how the past couldn't be changed no matter how he wished it. His teeth ground, and his brows knitted.

He broke his cold silence. "Maria," he finally asked softly, "was . . . was it just because you both were ARK survivors?" Maybe if he had something to justify it, he would be all right.

As she pulled the syringe away again, she cleansed the spot and placed a circular band aid on it. Of course, the band aid had a blue flower on it. They looked like forget-me-nots. "In retrospect," she admitted, "I think that was a part of it." Her voice quivered nervously, but it wasn't quite what Shadow wanted to hear. Heck, he wasn't sure what he wanted to hear. He stood before she tried to elaborate more.

"I'll be back tonight," he told her, not bothering to explain where he was headed or ask if she needed more than a blood sample. He heard her quiet goodbye as he went, and he walked from the large building into an insufferably sunny day. This time, he didn't waste any time, but used his newly acquired red Chaos Emerald to teleport directly to the edge of Angel Island.

Immediately he could smell the salty warmth of the sea. Shadow stood atop the edge of Angel Island, looking down at the waves crashing against the rocky cliff side, and he watched the water for a moment, truly enamored and soothed by its motion. He thought he could watch the sea for the entire day, but his curiosity was stronger. He turned around, looking out into the thicket of multi-sized, multicolored mushroom, and he set off on a hike into the mysterious island.

Shadow cast his eyes about, taking in the vast diversity of mushrooms in the massive grove. They were white and webbed, covered in splotches and protruding growths, flat and domed and round, and far bigger than any normal mushroom could grow. Maria would likely contribute it to the massive amounts of Chaos energy penetrating the island helping the mushrooms grow to treetop heights. He particularly liked the ones with veins beneath their saturated caps.

Eager to see more, Shadow picked up his pace, jogging lightly through the mushroom forest. He was careful of where he stepped, wary of which mushrooms might be poisonous, but otherwise, he found a certain relaxation in the sightseeing. Some of the mushrooms were closed like umbrellas, some secreted pus, and others still mimicked flowers. Leaping over a clump of sea anemone-like fungi, Shadow skated and scampered through the zone, head craning around.

Finally, having seen what he could, Shadow moved on, running deeper into Angel Island. Scaling up a hill that overlooked most of the mushrooms, he turned the other way to see the swamp overtaking a dilapidated city, and further west, the remains of the Hidden Palace zone. Invigorated, Shadow descended back through the trees and down into the marsh, mud already beginning to cake his skates.

The brown stone was ashen from the wear of the sun, and green algae grew on everything touched by the water and covered the swamp in a slimy green film. Pond plants grew aggressively. Shadow wondered briefly how long it had been since the ruins had been lived in and figured Maria would be able to tell him. Dr. Gerald had looked into the Ancients, so logically Maria had to too if she were to gain special insight into Chaos energy? Wading ankle-deep through the thick water surface, Shadow tried to shake thoughts of Maria away. He came here for space.

Well, he supposed, he didn’t have to go to Maria for the answers. He was sure Knuckles would have them too since he was descended from this place. Walking onward, Shadow frowned to himself, noticing that he wasn’t actually walking on the streets anymore. His jagged pathway had brought him from the path and up the crumbling houses until he was on the remains of the rooftops, the water level rising with the city. Nearly the entire city was submerged!

Stunned and curious about how the stagnant waters had drowned the Hydro City, Shadow leapt from rooftop to rooftop. Exactly how much information had been lost? With a grunt of annoyance, he mused if Knuckles had actually let Maria and her scientists on the island, he might have some answers. Unless, of course, he already knew—

Shadow shouted when he landed on a roof that proved incapable of holding his body weight. The brick crumbled beneath him and he plummeted deep into the gross waters, and Shadow flailed for a moment underwater, striving to gather his bearings. Squinting through the muck, Shadow looked for a place below to kick off, and his eyes widened at the sight he was presented.

Inside was nothing like the outside. Rich purple and blue walls filled his vision, and though obscured slightly by the cloudy green waters, the colors were still vibrant. Fish darted blindly away. Belatedly, Shadow realized he had fallen through a temple ceiling because he could see statues of Chao in the room. Chao, of all things? Did they worship them? Lungs aching for air, Shadow pushed off the floor and swam back to the top.

He broke fresh air with a deep gasp, coughing on the dirty water and heaving himself up onto the remains of the roof that thankfully held this time. Grunting in annoyance, Shadow rubbed at his watering eyes, the algae disagreeing with him. Sopping wet and covered in a fine film of green, Shadow muttered, “Perfect.” No matter how intrigued he was by the temple, there was no way he was going to go diving back into that mess for a peek. He’d just ask Knuckles later.

“Just perfect . . .

Trekking back uphill and out of the overgrown swamp, Shadow left Hydro City behind with a bad taste in his mouth. (It might have had something to do with the algae in his mouth.) He found his way back to the Hidden Palace zone and found a fountain pool that he washed in, rinsing the scum from his body. He shook his fur out and trusted the sun to dry him off and considered his pathway. The large expanse of land reached out in both directions. He figured he couldn’t go wrong either way and started to head to the west, but a flicker caught his eye.

He cast a glance towards it, and with a start, he whirled all the way around, finding himself staring at a small orb of light. It glinted and bounced, lively with energy, and Shadow frowned. What . . . was it? A spirit? Inwardly he laughed at himself and chastised the thought, but he knew that was Maria’s influence of hard science talking. This . . . This was new.

Warily approaching the bobbing light, Shadow inched his way forward and reached his hand out. It whipped away from him, going some distance out to the east. “Wait!” he cried, heart leaping in fear of it leaving him, but the orb stopped short. Again, Shadow approached the light, thinking rapidly. Was it sentient? Did it even understand him? Somehow, he doubted Maria would know, but he would bet that Knuckles would.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he finally mustered, trying to think like the echidna. Maybe if he established he wasn’t a threat, it wouldn’t leave?  He drew so close to the ball of light that his fingers nearly brushed it, but it zipped away again.

“Wait!” he called, and this time, it didn’t stop. It was fading from sight. His heart rate galloped. “WAIT!”

Shadow took off skating after it, certain he could catch it, but it quickly became apparent that the light was faster than him. Every time he got close enough to touch it, it whipped just out of his reach or right between his fingers, determined to elude him. It led him to one high mountain in particular that dwarfed the rest, and Shadow’s skates took him eagerly towards a new area, covering ground quickly. He followed the light blindly, his progress hampered by the Lava Reef zone’s rocky terrain, and it quickly became even more treacherous because of the lava. The heat was stifling and thick, and the ground was blackened by fire. Not sure why he was drawn to this place and the whirring light, Shadow continued into the underground with the lively orb.

He whirled around a corner with it and he swore, skidding to a halt and lurching, nearly pit-falling into a large pool of lava. Sucking wind, Shadow looked around wildly. He cursed under his breath again. He’d lost it! Not sure why he was drawn to this place when there were clearly other hospitable places on the island, he trekked inwards, heart still pounding with adrenaline. Perhaps it was still around someplace, hiding in the crevices?

With light feet and sweating brow, Shadow searched with grim determination. Surely it wouldn’t have led him here for naught? Eyes flicking around, he noted the man-made structures holding the tunnel up. A mining route? What in the world would the Ancients have wanted in this labyrinth of fire? Gold? Diamonds?

Up ahead, his heart leapt when he saw the little orb of light again. Running lightly around the pools of lava, the chase began anew, less frenetic this time as Shadow realized the orb was leading him somewhere. Eager to know, Shadow raced on, leaping over large pools of fire until they had left them behind. Slowly, the structures became even more intricate—pillars. The little light zipped ahead until they broke the surface again, this time into a temple.

His heart quickened. This was where he wanted to be. It didn’t matter where the light led him now, he’d found the place he wanted to see. The temple was made nearly completely out of mahogany obsidian, the color highly pleasing to the eye. The soft tones of rainbow obsidian decorated the pillars and statues of horned owls and panthers as trim, and Shadow ran after the ball of light, heart aching for the destruction of the once beautiful temple. Pillars were cracked and broken and entire walls blown out. Shadow raced after the light until it rounded a corner into a pair of double doors with panther-headed knobs. He darted in after it and came to an abrupt halt.

Before him, the room was empty. It was a small room, perhaps only a big as a large closet. However, the entire room was black. The walls, the ceiling, the floor, even the inside of the doors were perfect, pure black obsidian. How the one room had managed to survive without a single crack when the dilapidated temple was crumbling about it, Shadow didn’t know, but something stirred inside him in the small room.

Struggling to control his breathing, Shadow stepped lightly into the room, seeing his shape reflected in the mirrors. A whisper floated on the air, prickling at his fur and setting his teeth on edge. He cast a nervous glance over his shoulder. The place was too familiar to be normal. It was like it . . . called to him. Unbidden, Shadow crept forward, too curious about the pitch glass that reflected his hazy image back at him.

He stared into the inky obsidian mirror, heart palpitating uneasily as the silence pounded on his ears. Energy prickled his nerves, but he couldn’t look away from himself in the uncanny room. No, he kept staring into the black . . . and looking . . . and searching . . . and the mirror seemed to yield to him until he began to hallucinate a pair of eyes in his own that weren’t his. Crimson faded to gleaming amber like a trick to the eyes, and Shadow blinked, rubbing his eyes to get them back to his original color.

They didn’t change back. Instead of himself, Shadow looked into the obsidian mirror and saw a great feline, a black jaguar lurking in front of him, hulking and massive. Shadow lurched back, and the panther jerked with him, reflecting his movement perfectly. It crouched on all fours, and when Shadow turned his head, the panther turned its head. The mirror couldn’t possibly be reflecting him anymore, he thought with a cold touch of panic. That panther was real, far too real to merely be his own twisted image.

Carefully, he leaned forward, looking harder at the black jaguar, stubbornly willing it back the way it had come. Instead, its lips pulled back over its gleaming ivory teeth, and the silence was broken by one deep, guttural growl. Shadow’s fur stood on end. The panther’s hackles rose, and it pounced with a terrible roar.

Shouting and jerking back, Shadow tumbled backwards and fell on his butt in the doorway, heart racing. But, when he looked into the room for the black jaguar, there was nothing but his own reflection.

Blood pumping hot and heavy with fear, Shadow lunged to his feet and slammed the double doors, turned on his heel, and raced away from the mysterious room. His skates echoed loudly on the obsidian floors as he went, the temple filled with idols for horned owls and jaguars, the feline in particular being especially important in dedication. Even though he wanted to stay, Shadow was too creeped out to linger a second longer on his own, and he ran out from the temple into the upper levels of the Marble zone.

Pulse thumping noisily in his ears, Shadow sucked up the fresh air, knees weak. Somehow, he doubted Maria would have an explanation for what had just happened, and he heaved a defeated sigh in the middle of his thought pattern, rubbing his face. For how angry he was trying to be at Maria, he sure couldn’t keep his mind off of her, and it annoyed him to no end. He cast a glance back to the beautiful and decrepit temple behind him, resisted the urge to go inside again, and looked at the sun. It was later in the day. Late enough to see Rosie?

His heart panged. He was missing her already, and he wasn’t welcome in her home. After he had so royally loosed his temper on Eggman and Towers, he wondered if Walter would be able to forgive his anger. Maria always called it one of his worst traits. Even if he’d lost his temper for good reason, he doubted they would understand. But Chaos did he want to see Rosie right now.

Maria would tell him to apologize even if he may or may not get their forgiveness. And it was with heavy heart that Shadow teleported to the front steps of the quaint house, steeled his nerves, and knocked on the front door.  
The door swung open and Walter smiled. "Shadow! Come in."

Shocked, Shadow looked away from him but kept his feet rooted to the porch. "No thank you," he said first. He had thought he wouldn't be invited inside after yesterday's spectacle, but . . . that wasn't the case? His ears flicked nervously, and he managed to admit, "I . . . wanted to apologize. I owe you one."

"Well, we'd love to hear it, but there's no need for you to stand out here on the porch," Walter said courteously, and he swept his arm in for Shadow. "Come in. Come IN, Shadow."

He beckoned him until Shadow was forced to walk inside the house. On maternity leave, Clara lifted her hand and waved from the couch, saying, "Hello, Shadow."

He dipped his head, murmuring, "Hello, Clara," and feeling even more awkward for being inside. He cast a glance towards their dining room floor, but the wood was patched with a mismatching color. A hiccup brought Shadow's attention to George kicking in Clara's lap before he avoided their gazes again.

Shadow cleared his throat. "I . . . I wanted to apologize," he finally mustered, trying to find his words. Mercifully, they didn't interrupt him, allowing him to grope for his words. "I didn't mean to lose my temper, I just . . ." He bit his lip against trying to justify it. That would just make it worse, wouldn't it? He started again, "I shouldn't have behaved like that in your house. I'm sorry for lashing out, I'm sorry for putting this family in danger of Chaos, and I'm sorry about the floor." There, that ought to have covered it all, right?

Walter clapped his hand on Shadow's shoulder, saying easily, "Apology accepted, Shadow." The ease of it made Shadow lift his head in surprise, and Clara smiled at his bewildered expression, saying, "It's all right, Shadow. Dad has a terrible temper too, so we're not going to hold it against you."

A chuckle made Shadow's ears prick, and Walter laughed, "You should see Clara when she gets mad. She's got the temper to rival her father!"

She flushed lightly, but smiled ruefully as she defended herself, "Please, I'm not as bad as Dad!"

Walter grinned and leaned on the back of the couch, waggling his brows down at George who was chewing on his blanket. "Well, hopefully George will have his father's wonderful, serene and mellow personality. I think he does, he hardly cries."

Clara swatted at him, snorting, "Oh yes, but let's hope he doesn't get someone's EGO."

"Now I was trying to be nice, Clara. I didn't say a thing about your ego!"

“That’s it?”

The couple looked at him, and Shadow stared right back at them absolutely flummoxed. He gave a vague gesture with his shoulders, saying, “That’s all there is to it? You’re forgiving me just like that?”

Walter shrugged one shoulder, replying, “Of course. You don’t expect me to make you grovel, do you?”

“And actually,” Clara said while picking up a sniffling George, “it was Uncle Ivo that baited Chaos here, so that was his fault and not yours.”

“But . . . The floor—”

“Was that Chaos creature,” Clara said pertly, not giving him room to carry any extra guilt. “One of our friends is a skilled carpenter, so it was easy to have him come over and fix the floor.”

“The kitchen plumbing is another story,” Walter said with a wave of his hand. “We’ll have workers here all day Wednesday and Thursday.”

Shadow’s ears dipped back, and he stifled the uncanny urge to apologize again. Eggman baited Chaos in; Chaos was the one who ruined the house. Clara leaned down and gave a few kisses to George, saying, “Rosie’s at the skate park with Keagan if you’re looking for her.” She looked up, blue eyes twinkling at she read Shadow’s mind. “She’ll be out for the next hour before Keagan’s parents get her home if you want to keep an eye on her surrounded by all of those boys.”

Shadow nodded his head and said, “Thank you,” but inside, his heart grew heavy at the thought of going out in a public place. He excused himself under the premise that he was going to see Rosie, but he was frazzled at the idea of meeting new people. No, he had wanted just the two of them. He felt . . . too tired for that. Physically he was in top shape, but his heart was flustered, and he didn’t think he could endure another gathering of people yet.

Instead, he looked for something else to do. He went home and waited for Maria, but she never came back. She was working late again. Did she do that all the time? Perhaps she’d found something interesting in his blood. Since he couldn’t find Maria, he instead headed back to club Rogue, craving companionship, but Rogue wasn’t there. Maybe she was working as well.

Defeated by the responsibility of others, Shadow’s mind turned back to Angel Island. He supposed he could go back and listen to the ocean, but the idleness disagreed with him. He thought about the obsidian temple, nearly gave in to the urge to meddle with it again, and chose instead to be as productive as he could. If he wanted answers about the island, who better to ask than its guardian?

Shadow first checked the last places he had seen Knuckles, but the echidna was nowhere to be found. He searched far and wide, spanning from human cities back to the Green Hill Zone, but nothing yielded a hint at where he could be. Considering his eastbound trajectory, Shadow doubled back, easily using his Chaos Emerald to teleport from place to place, but no matter where he looked or how long, darkness fell before he so much as saw a glimpse of red fur.

Disappointed, Shadow returned home from his day ready for a hot shower and to simply fall asleep. Yet, he walked into a familiar scene with Maria sitting at the kitchen table in her pajamas, hair disheveled and looking all around ruffled. She looked up when he closed the door, and she left her paperwork on the table, turning to face him.

“Shadow.”

He slowed to a near stop in the living room. Now that he was here with her, he didn’t know what he wanted to say. Or if he wanted to say anything at all. Pressing his lips together, Shadow ventured, “Maria. Late night?”

She blushed light pink. “Yes,” she murmured. “I . . . got carried away.”

Shadow nodded, gravitating slowly to the stairs. “I see. Did you discover anything?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Nothing yet.”

There was a lengthy pause. Finally he abandoned hope of conversation, saying, “I’m going to take a shower—”

“Shadow, can we talk?” He froze at the foot of the stairs, and Maria bit her lip, looking nervously away from him. After a beat, she lifted her eyes to him, saying simply, “Please.”

Shadow took a deep breath, steeling his insides and turning expectantly to her. Maria clasped her hands in her lap, and she said quietly, “Shadow, you have to understand, when I married Abraham, I thought you were DEAD. No one else knew what had happened on the ARK except for him, and I . . . I took comfort in that. He was able to comfort me in ways no one else could.”

“And he comforted you about me?” Shadow interjected with a touch of disbelief.

Her fingers nervously smoothed her pant legs, and her brows knitted. “At first, yes,” she admitted. “Enough that I believed him. And you have to understand, other than you, he was my closest friend. After the ARK . . .” She trailed off uncertainly, trying to put into words what she was feeling. She shook her head, murmuring, “I felt like, after the ARK, I had no one. Everyone I loved and cared about were dead, Shadow. Barring my parents who never really understood why I changed, Abraham was the only one who understood. He supported me. When I threw myself so deep into my science that I didn’t eat or sleep, he was there to take care of me.”

Shadow couldn’t help but bristle at the idea of Abraham taking over in places where he had initially taken care of her. He tried to see it from her point of view, but all he felt was bitterness at being stuck in suspended animation while one of the men he loathed most in the world swooped in and picked up Maria’s broken pieces.

“And you didn’t care that he joined up with G.U.N.?” Shadow asked sourly, crossing his arms. “Even after what happened?”

Maria shook her head, answering, “He said he wanted to eventually become commander so that things like that wouldn’t happen anymore. He wanted to do better than his father, and he has. I don’t think G.U.N. operates the same anymore. He’s done well in reforming G.U.N. and I’m glad he’s changed it for the better.”

His ears flicked agitatedly, and he shot back, “You saw how he reacted to me. He was nearly just as bad as his father.” Shadow honestly didn’t know if that last bit was true or not. There seemed to be a gap in his memory about how the former G.U.N. Commander had treated him, but he could only conclude that his handler hadn’t been very forgiving.

Maria’s chest rose with a deep breath, and she said gently, “I saw how you reacted to him, too.”

Shadow scowled. “He said I wasn’t family.”

“He says that about Ivo too, but just because he says it doesn’t mean you aren’t family.”

His heart seized obstinately to the hate he’d always carried for the man, and his stubbornness refused to budge. “He called me a killing machine.”

Maria shifted and made a move as if to get up, but she remained seated at the last second, murmuring, “Shadow . . . You know that’s not true.”

His fur rankled, and he bit his tongue, resisting the urge to argue that point again. It wasn’t what they were arguing about. Spines flexing uneasily, Shadow looked back at the floor and finally asked, “So why did you finally divorce him?”

There was a heavy pause. “Actually,” she said, “it was Abraham who divorced me.” Shadow looked up in shock, and Maria gave him a pained smile. “Well, he didn’t like that I was looking into the same research that had created you. And he would bring up the ARK as evidence of science gone mad, as if the scientists up there deserved to die.” Tears briefly stung her eyes before she blinked them away. “He still sided with the military after all of this time,” she whispered. “It was just like the ARK again, military verses science. We couldn’t find common ground.

“I also found out that even after all of these years he was still harboring hate for you. The more I talked about the memory of you to Clara or Rosie, the less Abraham wanted to hear it. He wanted to bury your memory and never look back, and I . . . I couldn’t let him erase you.” She laughed weakly and looked down at her hands. “He was still jealous of you. I couldn’t stand it.”

Sighing, Maria’s blue eyes met his again. “After the ARK,” she said quietly, “Abraham needed someone to blame for all the bloodshed. And naturally, he chose you.”

“He blamed me for everything,” Shadow said harshly, both in agreement and as a general statement.

She didn’t refute his words this time. She grew quiet, and Shadow shifted on his feet. All of those reasons sounded like reasons for why Maria would divorce Abraham. Still, Abraham had always been crueler than Maria, of course she would simply tuck her head and take it . . . Shadow’s heart stirred in anger, and he was grateful the divorce had happened and that Maria didn’t have to put up with him anymore.

“What was the straw that broke the camel’s back?” he asked.

Maria seemed to flinch under the fluorescent lights, and she simply shook her head, looking down. “All of it, I think,” she said evasively. “After a while the tensions just rose and rose until, after Clara got married, he opted for divorce. We’ve been separated for five years now.”

Shadow didn’t like the sound of her tone, nervous and almost stuttering. Her fingers clenched tightly in her lap, and he frowned in worry, asking, “Maria? Is that really all?”

She nodded, but didn’t meet his eyes. “Yes,” she said, the lights casting her shadow on the floor between them. “Some things are personal, Shadow. Don’t worry about it.”

The rebuke hit him harder than it needed to. He looked away from her, ears flattening to his head. “And now I bet you want me to forgive him for the things he’s said and done when he still hasn’t forgive me,” he accused her bitterly.

“I want you both to forgive each other, of course,” Maria said, shifting forward in her seat again.

Shadow tossed his head with a scoff, his spines flexing. Forgive him? “You’re asking the impossible, Maria,” he said quietly. He scowled and muttered, “I can’t forgive the past.”

Finally he drew her out of her seat with his bitter words, and she came in front of him, kneeling down carefully on her knees. “Shadow, the ARK was over 50 years ago,” she persuaded him gently. “The past might not change, but we can always make the future better.”

“Not with a man like him,” Shadow growled, bristling at her words.

Maria hesitated at his closed off body language, and finally, she asked softly, “Can you really not let go, Shadow?”

His spines stiffened again along with his spine. “I can’t,” he told her truthfully, trying to keep the snarl out of his voice. Everything about the man was loathsome, and he still couldn’t see any good in him, much less what Maria saw that had made her marry him. “You expect me to let him walk all over me whenever he comes around. Be the bigger man, right? Well, I’m not, Maria. I’m not even a man! You can’t expect me to forgive him when he’d still spit on me if he had the chance.”

Her heart ached in the back of her eyes, and she tried again, “Shadow—”

“No,” he cut her off, taking a step away from her and shaking his head. His heart shook and he was exhausted, so he safely clammed up even tighter. “Just because you have the forgiveness of saints doesn’t mean I do.” He was tempted to bring up all of Abraham’s shortcomings and the evils he’d shown to him, but he bit his tongue, not wanting to argue about that on top of everything else. “Of course I’m always going to hate that you married him,” he said, trying to find his train of thought. “The past might be 50 years ago for you, but I was asleep that whole time. The ARK feels like it happened just yesterday for me, Maria, you have to understand—”

His tongue tangled when she leaned forward, reaching her hands up to cup his cheeks tenderly. Her blue eyes swam with tears, and she whispered, “Shadow . . . I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

For a second, it was all Shadow could do to stare at her, his chest squeezing in pain. He wasn’t—no, he wasn’t angry at her, it was Abraham . . . “Maria,” he stammered, “I—I’m not . . . I’m not angry at you, I just—it’s Abraham.”

Her eyes softened at him, and a lance pierced straight through his heart when the tears began to slip down her cheeks. “You’re angry I married Abraham, Shadow,” she told him.

Her words hit like a punch in the gut. Shadow’s throat worked, and he looked down in shame, fighting a whirlwind of confusing emotions. He didn’t want to be mad at Maria. It was Abraham he wanted to be mad at. He knew Maria didn’t deserve his anger, so he redirected it where he willed, but she still knew where the heart of the matter was as she always did—

Shadow’s erratic train of thought was interrupted by her arms wrapping around him and pulling him close. When she hugged him, all of the fight suddenly drained out of Shadow, leaving him exhausted, and he leaned against her, burying his face into her shoulder. For a second they stood there, Shadow soothed by her embrace, the hug really all he needed after the spectacle he’d made of himself the past two days. His heavy arms lifted around Maria’s back and he hugged her back, feeling like a heel.

Finally, she murmured, “I won’t repent for my actions, Shadow. I had a good marriage and a wonderful daughter. So maybe, if you can’t forgive him, then maybe there could be a truce? Abraham isn’t around all the time, only at big family gatherings or special events. Do you think you could behave at Thanksgiving? Surprisingly, Abraham and Eggman have only ruined Thanksgiving twice.”

Maria gave a weak laugh at her own joke, and Shadow’s heart took a punch. A good marriage. She sounded like she would go back and do it all again if she had the choice, even if Shadow had been around. Sensing a lost cause, Shadow buckled beneath the argument and pulled back from her, nodding. “Yes,” he told her, “I can do that.”

“Thank you,” she said with a watery smile. She rubbed her eyes with the backs of her hands, and she took a deep breath, letting go of the brunt of her negative emotions. “Are we all right now?”

Shadow nodded. They were probably as good as they could possibly be on the subject of Abraham. “Yes. I’m . . . sorry for the way I’ve acted.”

“It’s all right,” Maria said sweetly, and she leaned forward, putting a gentle kiss on his forehead. “I love you, Shadow,” she told him, “and no amount of fighting between us will change that.”

Though he still wasn’t happy, the last remnants of his anger deflated. Shadow took her hand, returning her kiss and holding her hand close to his damaged heart. “I love you too,” he said, coveting her words in the deepest, untouched parts of his heart.

She swiped several last times at her eyes, and she continued to lead the conversation away from Abraham. She finally gave a laugh, asking, “And where in the world have you been? You smell like brimstone.”

Shadow’s muzzle flushed. His ears tipped back, and he explained, “I’ve been exploring Angel Island. I was at the foot of a volcano today.” He couldn’t keep the excitement out of his voice. “It’s a beautiful place, Maria. I wish you could come with me.”

She smiled sadly at him as she said, “Well, if Knuckles can forgive me at some point, then maybe we can.” She stood up, exaggeratedly wrinkling her nose, saying, “But I think I’ll let you go take that shower now, you stinky hedgehog.”

Shadow’s lips twitched as she migrated back to the table, and he warned her, “Don’t stay up too late working.”

“I won’t,” she promised him with a smile, and Shadow headed upstairs to clean up after his adventurous day. And even after they had both retired to bed, Shadow laid on his belly, emotions in a lazy swirl. Even if he had promised to try to be civil with Abraham, it never meant he had to like the man. He could hate him as much as he liked as long as Maria never found out. But more importantly, Maria had told him she loved him again. Despite the somber night, warmth slowly filled his chest. Somehow, hearing those words was worth making up as best as they could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next chapter! Leave a review to inspire me to keep writing please! <3


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